


Ghost Buddy

by NicktheHuman



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Chara is the Narrator, Chara/Frisk - Freeform, Charisk - Relationship - Freeform, Gen, Reader Is Chara
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-11
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-06-01 13:28:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 64,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6521683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NicktheHuman/pseuds/NicktheHuman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In your defense, possessing someone seemed a lot easier in those scary movies you used to watch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. They're different

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! 
> 
> My first post here. Huzzah. This is a look at how Frisk and Chara cope to being bound together through the Neutral and Pacifist route of Undertale. Some implied Charisk. 
> 
> Undertale belongs to Toby Fox.

You remember it like it was yesterday, but that might be because you've lost all track of time. You woke up in the patch of sunflowers. Mom was crying over you, and you couldn't really grasp why or what was going on.

Then it hit you. Asriel messed everything up. You were going to kill two birds with one stone – get revenge on the so-called family you had on the surface, and help your real family – the ones who actually took care of you and loved you – escape on to the surface. The two of you would be heroes, freeing monsterkind and getting revenge on humanity.

"Mom?" You said, hesitantly as you tried to assess the situation around you. She didn't seem to hear you, so you repeat yourself a bit louder. Again, nothing.

You thought harder. Asriel forced control away from you. They wouldn't let you fight the humans. They wouldn't let you strike back the person who had the audacity to call himself your father, even as he shot arrow after arrow into your new body. You had always been an angry kid – you got it from your father – but now a type of anger you had never felt before was coursing through you. You'd never been angry at Asriel before. Even if he was being a crybaby, even when you felt that Mom and Dad preferred him to you, even when you fought.

You were snapped out of this as Mom got up and walked away. "Mom, where are you going?" You asked. You got yourself to your feet and ran after her. But as she left through the door exiting into the Ruins, you found you could not follow her. You were stuck in a way. Trying to move farther away from the sunflowers made your body feel sluggish, to the point where you could not muster the energy to lift your feet anymore. Confused, you watched Mom retreat into the Ruins. To make things more complicated, you could've sworn you saw a sunflower pop out of the ground, watch her, and retreat back into the soil.

You don't know how long you spent trying to get yourself to go through the doorway, but it was no use. Panic began to set in. Mom couldn't hear you, you were bound to this patch of sunflowers, and you couldn't remember anything after Asriel took control of the body you had briefly shared.

You shuffled back over to the patch of sunflowers. Angrily, you went to kick through a few of them.

That's when everything got worse. You realized that you didn't even budge a single petal on any of them. You reached down to pick one up, but your hand went right through them. The feeling of panic in your chest intensified and you began scrambling at the flowers, doing your best to try and interact with something, anything.

You can't remember how long had gone by before you laid down and realized that no, that was it. You were dead. A ghost. And not a ghost-monster like the few that had run the snail farm, but a ghost. At the acceptance, memories came back. Memories of Asriel collapsing into the living room of Home, of Mom and Dad rushing over in tears, trying to heal him, and failing. The cold feeling of your new body crumbling into dust and breaking apart.

The rage came back. And looking back, that rage overtook you for days. Maybe weeks. Maybe months. Rage at Asriel for messing up your plan. Rage that you gave up your very life so that you could do the only two things you ever really wanted to do in life: help them and get back at your relatives on the surface.

But after time the rage spread. You were angry with dad for being so naïve as to not catch onto the plan. Mad at the other monsters for heralding you as their hope for freedom. Furious with the comedian Snowdrake Family your parents had taken you to see, for cracking jokes while all the monsters in the Underground were suffering. All the good memories you had were replaced with rage, that all these monsters settled with complacency in the underground until you fell down. Time went by, and you began to hate the monsters just as much as you hated humanity for what they had done to you.

Mom came to the garden almost every day to tend to your grave. And as much as you wanted to, you could never bring yourself to hate her. Your birth-mother died in child birth – which, to the village you grew up in, was the first sign that you were some sort of demon child – so Toriel was the only Mom you had ever known. Even in death, she was taking care of you. And seeing her was the only thing you ever really had to look forward to. Sometimes it almost seemed like she was aware of your presence, as even though she never responded to you, she would occasionally double-take in your direction as if she had seen you standing there.

No, you didn't think you could ever bring yourself to hate Mom. But then again, you didn't bank on another child falling down, either.

A long time had gone by since your death, and you were sitting next to Mom while she was tending the sunflowers. You liked sitting by her. Sometimes you would almost forget about being dead and it just seemed like you were helping her with the gardening like you had done so many times in the past. But there was a faint cry in the distance, coming from above you, causing both of you to look up at the same time. Mom gasped when she realized something was falling down, and she ran towards the falling figure. In doing so, she stomped right on the flowers that were growing over where your face had been buried, causing you to frown. Still, you knew it wasn't on purpose so you got up and followed Mom.

She caught what had fallen just in time. You scurried around the side of her, and you were surprised to see a very scared little boy in Mom's arms. He began crying as soon as he saw Mom's face. Mom began to coo and comfort the boy, and walked home. As she left, she said, "Hush now my child, I will take care of you."

Something snapped inside you at those words. You hated that Boy, and you hated Mom too. She had made you feel special. Like you were hers. But would she take in any child? There wasn't anything special about you, she just replaced you with that driveling brat.

As you watched them leave, you saw that flower pop out of the ground again. It began shaking. You even could hear it shouting something, but you couldn't tell what.

After that kid fell down, Mom didn't come tend to the flowers anymore. Sometimes the days seemed to repeat themselves. But all you could do was sit there and stew in your anger, letting it fester and grow. You hated every insect that crawled by, every ray of sunshine that cracked through Mt. Ebott and hit your grave. You hated every petal on every flower, especially now that some were beginning to wilt, and it made you hate Mom more.

You don't know how many weeks came by before Mom came back. She was crying again. Seeing her cry almost made you forget being angry with her, and you wanted badly to hug her, to be her child again. But you knew you couldn't and it made you angry.

Time went on, and you couldn't measure it because monsters didn't age like you would have. More kids fell down. Each time, Mom would find them, and take them, and forget about you and your grave. The flower in the courtyard of the Ruins would yell something. Days would seem to overlap. Time went by in a blur of anger and rage.

After the sixth child fell down, you gave up on ever seeing Mom again. And you swore months went by before she did come back. At this point, you didn't even feel anything from the sight of her. Your anger had hit its peak and now you just rolled your eyes again at how she conveniently remembered first dead human child.

It wasn't until she talked that something inside you changed. "Chara." She whispered, looking at a few of the flowers that had wilted. "I am a terrible mother. I'm so sorry."

Your arms that had been folded across your chest dropped. She hardly ever spoke when she tended the flowers, much less said your name.

"Since losing you, I failed to protect six other children. Soon, your f…Asgore will break the barrier. Just one soul left. I never wanted things to be this way. I should have never taught you about the barrier's limitations." She cried harder. "Maybe you'd still be here."

She tended the flowers, and you just stopped and watched her. Mixed feelings swirled inside your head. Part of you agreed with her out of spite, part of you was angry that she didn't think you could handle knowing the truth (though part of you pointed out that maybe it's true since you went and got yourself killed), part of you was still angry that she had tried to replace you six times.

But mostly, you were sad. And you hadn't been sad for a long, long time.

That night, another human fell. And that's when everything changed.

You don't know if you'd call it sleep, but when the light faded away from Mt. Ebott, you fell into a dream-like state. But something snapped you out of it as a thud echoed throughout the chamber where your grave was. You sat upright and looked around, and nearly jumped out of your skin to see that another human had fallen right next to where you had been laying.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Oh my God." You say out loud, out of reflex, and scrambled a away from them.

What's even more shocking, is that this kid looks up, and looks at you – not through you, AT YOU – and says, "Oh my gosh, I'm sorry! I didn't hurt you, did I?"

You freeze. No one has spoken to you in what had to be years. Looking around, for anyone else, you bring a finger up to yourself and ask, "Me?"

The other kid sits up and rubs their shoulder, clearly in pain. Still, they give you a playful smile. "Of course, silly. Who else is here?"

You aren't sure how to react. You slowly shake your head. "I'm okay, no worries." You look the kid over, and you realize they look to be about eleven or twelve. A bit younger than you had been before you died. They're pretty banged up. Usually, that would be great because after all, you HATE humans. But this one has you more curious than anything else.

"So what's your name?" They ask, still giving you a friendly smile. You weren't use to this either. Everyone in your village looked at you like a demon. But when you killed your mom in childbirth, had the creepy smile, and took out your problems on other kids in the village, they probably tend to do that.

"Chara." You answer, not taking your eyes off them.

"That's a pretty name!" They answer excitedly, as if you had told them a great secret. "My name is Frisk! Can you maybe give me a hand up?"

Disgust and fury rose inside of you. No human had ever done a thing to help you, other than give you a reason to throw yourself into the mountain. But, again, curiosity won you over and you reached out your hand to them without thinking. And you had forgotten that, oh yeah, you're dead, so Frisk's hand just phased right through yours.

"Oh…" Frisk said, at what happened. You're a little surprised at how calm they are at their situation. "Are you a ghost?" Frisk tilts their head a bit.

You shrug. "Well. I'm dead and invisible to most people so I'd count that as a ghost."

Frisk scratched their head and asked, "Does that mean I'm a ghost if I can talk to you?"

You looked down at their hands and legs, to see that they were crushing the flowers. You point and answer, "No, because you can touch the flowers."

Realizing where they were Frisk jumped up and scurried off your grave. "Oh no! What a pretty garden. I didn't ruin your garden did I?"

Everything this kid did confused you. They were so very…well. Monster-like. They were nice and polite, which you had never seen from a human before, and it was baffling.

"It's…" You hesitate. "It's okay."

"Do you know how I get out of here, Chara?" Frisk asked, looking around,

You nod and point them down the hallway, although part of you doesn't want them to go. You haven't talked to anyone in so long that even this feels nice.

Frisk thanks you in their polite, soothing voice, and begins to walk down toward the door. But they stop and look at you. "Why don't you come with me, Chara?"

You shake your head. "I can't. I haven't been able to leave this garden."

Frisk frowns. "Oh…I'm sorry. That sounds really lonely." But then, their frown flips and they regain this excited, exuberant nature. "Maybe I can find someone to help!"

Before you can object, they run off. And then, something feels wrong. You get that sluggish feeling again, and everything goes fuzzy. You blink and rub your eyes, and when you open them, you're hovering off the ground, next to Frisk. They double-take at you.

"Hey, what happened?" They ask, but you aren't sure how to respond. Thankfully, you're interrupted before you need to.

"Howdy!"

You freeze up, and look at the flower in front of you. It's the same one that popped out of the ground whenever Mom left, you were sure of it. Suddenly, the air around you seemed very compressed.

This was different. You had encountered monsters before. Some of them would accidentally release soul magic, and you knew how to dodge it. But now it was different. You were very aware of Frisk's presence right next to you. You almost felt like you were inside their body, like you could move their arms despite the fact they were inches away from you.

"Try and run in to as many friendliness pellets as you can, okay?" The flower, Flowey, said in an overly cheerful manner.

Frisk was listening to them intently, but you could tell their smile had faltered. They were as suspicious as you were.

You saw the magic bullets materialize around Frisk.

"It's lying." You say. "Move!"

You go to move too, but you move Frisk's body, not yours. You move Frisk from the path of the bullets, confused.

Frisk glances at you with alarm out of the corner of their eyes. You feel something in side of you and they snap control of their body away from you.

"Hey buddy." Flowey says, annoyed, "You missed them. Let's try that again."

This time, Frisk dodges the bullets on their own – and actually fairly gracefully at that.

Frisk looks like they want to say something to you, but you both jump as the flower cackles and grows some rather creepy fangs. You had never seen a monster look at you the way it was. No, that was a look you remembered only from the way your father would look at you when no one else around.

"FINE. DON'T PLAY ALONG." Flowey snarled.

A ring of bullets surrounded Frisk, which included you as well. You weren't sure if you could be hurt by magic as a ghost, but you didn't want to find out.

But before you could find out or had to worry about it, a fireball blazed through the air, striking the flower.

Mom, coming to your rescue once again. You almost want to forget about Frisk and pretend she was there for you, but she quickly begins with the whole, "my child," routine with Frisk, and your mood sours.

You follow, not that you apparently have a choice, as Toriel and Frisk enter the Ruins. Toriel has Frisk talk to a dummy, for some reason, and they progress. As you go by, you take a swing at the dummy and of course you just go right through it.

Mom shows Frisk around the various, "traps," of the first part of the Ruins. You look at Frisk, and they must feel your gaze, as they turn and look at you with a raised eyebrow. However, they fall behind Mom, and in that moment a Froggit leapt in front of them. It hopped around excitedly, shooting a fly-shaped blast into Frisk's body.

Frisk cried out in pain – and you felt a sting too. You're definitely connected to this kid in some way. The air became compressed again and you could feel more of an awareness of Frisk's body. Seizing the opportunity to have a physical form again, you force Frisk's arms to pick up a nearby stick and try to make them swing for the Froggit. However, their arm locks up before you can even raise the branch over your head. Frisk forces you to drop it, and turns to the confused monster.

"Aw! Aren't you a cutie!" Frisk coos to them.

The Froggit actually looked down as if it were bashful.

"Well I don't think it knows what you said, but it appreciates the compliment anyway." You say to your partner, a bit surprised.

Toriel stomped into view and glared at the Froggit, causing it to run off.

"Are you alright, my child?" She asks.

Frisk nods and gives her a thumbs up. But as she turns back to guide the child, they turn and give you a glare. You scowl back at them, giving what Asriel always called the, "creepy face."

At the end of the next hallway, Mom decides she has to run off and gives Frisk a cell phone, telling them to stay put and she'll come back for them.

As soon as Mom leaves, you turn to them and say, "Look, kid…"

You jump back a bit as Frisk gives you a sassy attitude you haven't heard yet before. "No, you look, Ghost Pants."

"I have a name." You snap.

"Well, your name's going to be, 'jerk,' if you keep up those shenanigans." Frisk places their hands on their hips. "My body, my rules. I would never hit that cute little frog thing! It was just excited."

You feel yourself getting angry and wanting to hit them, but you know you can't. "You were just lucky. These monsters want your soul so they can go back to the surface."

"Yeah I'm sure the big evil frog that likes compliments has a big evil plot against me." Frisk replies dryly. To your surprise, their expression softens. "Maybe they just need friends."

You're utterly perplexed at this. You'd never known a human like this in your entire life. They almost remind you of Asriel with their happy attitude.

"I don't mind you sticking around." Frisk says, "But none of that."

You're mad at them. You're mad because all you've wanted to do since you've died is get revenge. On humans, on monsters, on your own family. But possessing Frisk wasn't going to happen, and now you were stuck with them.

"Yeah, well, if anything happens to you and you wind up like me, don't say I didn't warn you." You say, folding your arms.

To your surprise, Frisk smiles at you. "What?" You snap.

"Cute and protective? I lucked out as far as being haunted is concerned." Frisk gives you a wink and begins to walk out of the ruins, clearly satisfied with the massive blush that's creeping across your face.

You stammer a nonsensical response after them. Cute?


	2. Home Is Where the Pie Is

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You have to admit, you admire the kid sometimes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Undertale belongs to Toby Fox
> 
> Thank you for the comments and Kudos' so far. It is much appreciated.

"Come on Frisk, let's go." You say, tired of watching them play in the pile of leaves. Secretly, you wish you could play in the leaves. It had been so long. You had been mad for so long you didn't remember the last time you enjoyed yourself or played like a normal kid.

"But it fills me with determination!" Frisk objects, and then a sparkling yellow object appears next to them.

You glance at it curiously. You remember having been able to do that, back when you were alive. "Determination."

Frisk curiously touches the, "save point," and creates their own save. They clearly don't understand, and you aren't really sure if you should explain it to them, so you stay quiet. 

Frisk finally leads you both to a bowl of monster candy that Mom would always leave out for the smaller monsters. They grab two pieces.

You scowl. "Hey, sign says take one, Frisk."

Frisk looks at you and giggles.

"What's so funny?" You ask.

"You've wanted me to kill three Froggit's, and two Whimsun's, but you're mad at me for taking more than one piece of candy?" Frisk asks.

You blush, again. They had a point. However, Frisk turned around to grab two more pieces and managed to knock the bowl over in their rush.

You give them a sly grin. "See? Good job Frisk. Ten out of ten. Bet you feel like the scum of the earth."

Frisk actually looks at the mess they made, guiltily, but most of the candy had already rolled into the little pools of water at the side of the room. "Oops…"

You and the younger kid walk through the Ruins, and you don't even bother objecting to Frisk sparing the Vegetoid you encounter, because they've made it perfectly clear that they think you're wrong about the monsters being worthless. And every time they get a smile or happy noise out of the monster, they give you a smug grin.

This time though, Frisk gave you a look of…concern? Pity? Either way, it made your blood boil. "Chara," They begin, "why do you hate the monsters so much? Did they do something to you?"

You don't bother to answer them. You wouldn't know how. Maybe they didn't do anything, but they heralded you as this prophesied hero and made you think could actually be something special. And then they made you family and actually conned you into thinking that maybe you could have been something good. Something other than the demon child you were always brought up to believe. And it got you killed.

"Not as much as I hate people." You mutter in response. The answer surprises them.

"Is that why you jumped too?" Frisk answered. Then they looked embarrassed, and at first you didn't know why, but then it struck you…

"…too?" You ask them, but this time they're the ones who chose not to answer. Instead, they look around at all the switches and wonder why none of them they're hitting are lowering the spikes at the end of the room.

"Why don't you call Mom and ask her where she is? Maybe she could come help." You suggest. Yeah, Frisk was annoying, but being stuck there wasn't very fun.

Frisk turns to you slowly. "Mom? Wait, is Toriel your Mom?"

You curse at yourself internally. You hadn't wanted to let them know much about you, but you nod. No use hiding it now.

Frisk takes out the phone and calls Mom. At first they chat a bit, and you can hear Mom ask about their preference as to butterscotch or cinnamon – she's preparing a surprise pie for them, you could already tell. Frisk says they haven't left the room we were left in, but they cross their fingers like that makes it okay. But at the end of the call, Frisk says, "Okay, bye Mom, see you soon!"

You go cold inside. You try desperately to pick up a rock on the ground and chuck it at their head, but you can't. You can't do anything and the physical reminders don't exactly calm you down.

"Chara, what are you doing?" They ask.

"YOU DON'T CALL HER MOM!" You scream, your voice echoing louder than you can ever remember it being. You're crying, and you remember what your farther always said about crying, and it makes you feel weak. So your anger just grows. "SHE'S NOT YOUR MOM AND SHE NEVER WILL BE! I'LL KILL YOU!" You can feel an odd black ooze coming out of your eyes, and you can only imagine how it makes you look.

Frisk backs away from you slowly and stumbles on to the floor. You see tears well up in their eyes and for the first time since falling down they look afraid. Not of the monsters, but of you. But they take a deep breath and stand up. "I'm sorry, Chara."

You hadn't expected that answer. Usually when you yelled, someone would yell back. "You should be," you spat at them.

But then Frisk walks up to you, and gets close – close like you were in a battle but you aren't. They awkwardly try to put their arms around you, but obviously they can't.

"What are you doing?" You ask dryly.

"This is my attempt at hugging you." They reply, matter-of-factly.

This was the sort of behavior that baffled you. Every time you wanted to lash out, this kid, this weird un-human-like human did something supportive and comforting and you didn't know how to feel. Part of you wanted to be angry, but in a way, it felt good to have someone care. But then this disgusted you, because no one could ever actually care.

"I just said I'd kill you." You said. "What is WRONG with you?"

"Chara, I never learned how to read." Frisk states bluntly.

"I – what?" You couldn't follow this kid's line of thinking.

"My parents never sent me to school, and they never taught me." Frisk tells you this in a tone as if they were discussing the weather. "That's why I took more pieces of monster candy. I couldn't read the sign."

You did your best not to emote. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I like having you with me." Frisk says, smiling at you, making your stomach feel weird. This had never happened to you before. Your insides felt like they were doing flips, and you could feel yourself blushing. "You've read signs to me, you've helped me dodge monster attacks, and even when I don't let you fight them, you tell me the monsters names and what kind of attacks they've had."

You blink. You hadn't really thought of how you had been doing these things, but you had.

Frisk continued, as they could tell you were processing the words. "I appreciate you, Chara. Having you with me is nice. I like you." They wink and you step back, embarrassed. "But seriously. The only thing I don't like is how angry you are."

You open your mouth to tell Frisk that they'll have to deal with it, but they cut you off. "I'm not done. I'm not sure why you're so angry Chara. I wish I could do something to help you. I know you're not just going to come out and tell me what's going on with you, but…I like you. I appreciate you. I don't think you're as bad as you think you are or as mean as you're trying to come off."

Damn them. Your insides were churning, and your eyes felt like they were on fire. Respectfully, Frisk turned away from you. You were beginning to understand how they so easily got the monsters to like them. You looked to the wall and noticed a signed on the wall you missed earlier. "Hit the red switch, Frisk," you advise them through a sniffle.

Frisk looked at you, perplexed. You nodded to the sign. "I didn't see that before but it says to hit the red switch."

Frisk beamed at you, ecstatic you were still helping. They winked at you. "Thank you, my great protector."

You roll your eyes at them. "Cut that out." Still, you were blushing, and you hated it. Frisk already knew that the flirting flustered you, so they were pouring it on thick.

Frisk skips over to the switch and pressed it, causing the spike gate to go down at the end of the hall. "Come on, Chara!" They shout, charging ahead. You groan and follow after them.

As you chased after them, a Loox popped out from behind a pillar, locking you and Frisk into a battle. Frisk glanced over to you.

"It's a Loox. They get picked on a lot, don't really care for it." You explain. You left out the part where one day after Mom caught you sneaking some pie and grounded you, you snuck out into the Ruins and picked on Loox yourself. Any other day, you'd feel like these monsters deserved it, or worse, but…

You didn't bother attempting to control Frisk. They were a surprisingly agile kid, and had no problem dodging the monsters soul magic that leaked out of its giant eye. As soon as the Loox was done, Frisk gave them a big smile and shouted, "You have a very pretty eye!"

The Loox became embarrassed and ran off.

Both you and Frisk are rather quiet as you pass through the room. You feel like maybe you should apologize to them for snapping, but that thought just turns in your stomach and you feel disgusted at yourself for even considering it. Humans had never done anything but hurt you, and no one ever apologized for that.

But Frisk wasn't just any human, and it you still didn't quite wrap your head around it. Were they really a good person? They certainly thought you could be.

As you rounded the corner with them, you saw Mom come from around a tree, looking at her cell phone. But her eyes snap to Frisk and she gasps, running up to them. "My child, are you hurt?"

You look at Frisk and see that the Froggit's bullet had left a small tear in their shirt, with a small scuff mark exposed under it. It was very tiny, but that was how Mom was. You couldn't get anything past her.

Frisk smiled at Mom reassuringly. "I'm fine M…Ms. Toriel."

You felt something reminiscent of guilt pang in your chest at Frisk's hesitation. You hadn't felt guilt in so long that it was hard to remember what that was like or if that was even it.

"All the monsters are really nice and everything." Frisk added, giving Mom a big hug. You're a little jealous, but mainly because you can't.

"Well…it was irresponsible for me to leave you in the Ruins for so long. I was planning on surprising you, but no use now. Come along, my child." Mom says with her warm voice.

You follow them to Home and Toriel ushers them in. Before doing so, a SAVE Point is spawned in front of the house.

"Hey," you call to Frisk, making them stop, "You should go touch that."

Frisk notices the little yellow gleam and walks over to it, giving it a poke. They smile at the warmth it provides. "I would never think there'd be such a cute little house in the Ruins like this. I feel really good about all this!"

You can't help but smirk and shake your head. "Come on, Mom's waiting for you."

Frisk goes inside, and Toriel is waiting. She explains that Frisk can stay here for as long as they like, but the smell of burning pie is becomes present in the house, and she runs off, but not before rustling Frisk's hair. Frisk walks inside and looks around the room.

"So was this your room, Chara?"

You shake your head. "No, this is the guest room…" You still had memories of playing and coloring with Asriel in here though, making you reminisce. For as long as you had been mad at Asriel, you forgot all the good times you used to have.

Frisk examines the box filled with shoes at the foot of the bed.

"All sorts of different sizes." You point out, and look at Frisk's feet. "But none that look like they'd fit you."

"So the other kids who lived here must have been a lot younger than us, huh?" Frisk asked, a sadness in their tone.

You thought back. They were all pretty young, thinking about it. The youngest was the first one, but the oldest had to have been around eight at best. You nod.

Frisk sat down on the bed and sighed. "Chara, what do I do?"

You weren't really prepared for this question. "NOW you want my advice?"

Frisk rolled their eyes. "Well not if it's going to be, 'kill or be killed,' like Flowey said or how I should wack everything with a stick." Their tone lightened. "I mean…how do I get out of here? I need to get back to the surface."

"Why?" You can't help but ask.

They hesitate, so you continue. "There are legends about people who climb the mountain never being heard from again. Don't tell me you've never heard them. You came here for a reason."

"I don't want to talk about it." Frisk answers, and lays down. They start shaking, and you aren't sure if it's from the cold or if they're crying. But then you remember how you used to lay in bed and shake and try not to remember things, and you settle on the latter.

You contemplate, because if there's one thing you're good at after being stuck haunting a patch of flowers for years, it's sitting and thinking. You want to say something to Frisk, but what? You still hadn't forgotten your grudge against humanity but Frisk was making you feel…THINGS. When was the last time you felt any of these things? When was the last time you felt anything other than anger or hatred? It wasn't all that bad.

Before you could decide, their silent cries turned into light snores. You let out a deep sigh of relief. Getting to the surface took, at minimum, the power of a human soul and a monster soul. And absorbing a monster soul was impossible, unless they were a tough boss monster like…

Mom or Dad.

You squirm. Frisk wouldn't hurt a fly, but what if they had to hurt Mom or Dad to leave? Fear and anger flew up inside you again. Humans were inherently selfish – yourself included, you had no qualms admitting – and surely Frisk would cast aside this squeaky-clean demeanor in order to get themselves home.

But you could always stop them, right? Maybe. Your control over Frisk, while in battle only, was severely limited. And, they had determination, like you did.

You would just have to worry about it when you got there.

You jumped as the door opened, and Mom walked in, carrying a slice of pie. You recognized it as butterscotch and cinnamon – not a chocolate pie, but certainly one of your favorites. She saw Frisk snoozing, and went to turn off the light. She set the slice of pie on the floor and went to leave. She hesitated for a brief moment and you swear she looked in your direction for a split second before leaving.

You lay down on the bed next to Frisk. You close your eyes and thought back to playing in this room. You must have drifted off into that sleep-like state as you're woken up to Frisk giggling at you.

"I didn't know ghosts took naps too. But I think you're being a little forward with me." Frisk said with a wink.

You snap out of the bed, blushing. "Well, what, am I supposed to just sit around while you sleep?"

"I'm just teasing Chara." Frisk replies. You notice they still sound rather sad so you decide to maybe lighten up on them. They are the only person you have right now, and they've been nothing but nice to you.

"Mom left you some pie." You blurt out. You meant to apologize to them for the mom thing, but you suck at apologies and instead diverted to food.

Frisk rolled over and grabbed the slice, taking in a big whiff and taking it with her as she left the room. "So I decided something."

You look at them.

"I'm getting out of here, no matter what." They tell you, and you recognize Determination in their voice. "And I'm hoping I can find a way to help you out too."

You're a bit surprised at this, but you're a ghost so you highly doubt they can do anything for you. "That's great. Might want to ask Mom about how to leave though."

Frisk grimaced, knowing that it wasn't going to be an easy conversation. They wandered down the hall, longingly looking at the hallways of Home. They stop and stare at themselves in the mirror for a minute. You realize it's really weird to look in a mirror and not see yourself there looking back. But still, you're worried about Frisk (and it creeps you out to worry about someone, but anyway) so you say, "It's you!"

Frisk gives you a small smile for your efforts and makes their way to the living room. Toriel gives them a warm smile. "Did you have a nice nap?"

Frisk nods and goes to speak, but instead stammers out, "Yeah just looking around."

Frisk aimlessly shambles into the kitchen and glances at things with no interest. They're stalling and you recognize it easily. At one point they open the refrigerator and pull out a chocolate bar.

You freeze. Frisk turns to you and says, "I'm surprised they get this brand down here…hey Chara, are you crying?"

You turn and hold back tears. After all this time, she kept it. She told you, when you were sick in bed, that you could have that bar when you got better. And of course, that day never came. And she kept it.

Frisk takes the hint and finally returns to the living room.

"How do I get to the surface, Ms. Toriel?" They ask, a shakiness in their voice.

You see fear and worry in Mom's eyes. "Oh dear…excuse me."

"Where is she going?" Frisk asks you quietly.

You become uneasy and shrug. You follow Mom with Frisk and she unlocks the chains to the basement. "That's the path out of here, Frisk." You advise. Frisk goes to chase after Mom but you call out, "Wait."

Frisk gives you a confused look. "Go back outside and save first." You advise cautiously.

Frisk keeps up the confused look. "Touch the little yellow thing outside from yesterday." You add.

Frisk does so, but looks confused. "What do you mean save?" They ask as you both re-enter the house and follow Mom.

You frown. "The Underground is a place filled with magic. Your Determination, if it's like mine, works a certain way…it might help out. I can't really explain."

Frisk hesitates, but they look at you and give a faint smile. "Okay Chara. I trust you."

Whoa. Those were words you never heard before. Once you made sure Asriel didn't doubt you, but this was different.

"Child, do not follow me." Mom advises them, sternly, before going forward. Frisk furrows their brow and keeps going, marching down the basement hallway after her. Mom warns them a few more times, but before you know it, you're all at the door to exit the Ruins.

Mom explains to Frisk that she intends to destroy the door. That monsters will try to steal their soul. How Dad - Asgore - will take Frisk's soul to free the monsters. "If you want to leave, prove to me you're strong enough."

"Wait, what?!" You stammer out, but you already feel yourself pulled to Frisk's side in battle.

"I…I don't want to fight you!" Frisk yells out, confused, hurt, and sad.

Mom doesn't say anything.

"She's looking through you…not listening at all." You exclaim to Frisk.

Mom begins to use her fire magic to attack Frisk from all sides. This is nothing that you've ever seen before, and clearly Frisk hasn't either. They do a pretty good job dodging most of the attacks, but one clubs them in the back towards the end of mom's spell. They cry out in pain and you can feel the burning heat on your own back as well.

"Toriel, please!" Frisk begs. "I need to get to the surface! I don't want this!"

There is sincerity in Frisk's voice that you believe.

But Mom replies, in the voice that always frightened you, "Fight or run away."

As Frisk dodges the next attack, they look to you for guidance. You panic a bit yourself. "I…I don't know, Frisk."

Fire washes over Frisk's side and you cry out in pain too.

Frisk hesitantly pulls out the stick you found in the Ruins. "Frisk…?" You ask.

Frisk, in tears, lashes out at Mom and strikes her across the face with the branch. Mom is clearly taken aback, but regains her composure.

You remain silent. You can't process this. Why is Mom doing this? Under any normal circumstances you'd want her to burn Frisk alive, but Mom isn't leaving them with much of a choice.

This continues, and you barely feel the burns from Mom's attack, as you feel numb inside watching the pair fight. Frisk had tears streaming down their face, and at one point they raised the stick far above their head, leapt up, and brought it down on Mom's head.

Mom collapsed to one knee.

"N…no…" You mutter. You're crying and you don't remember when that started, but you became very aware that it happened sometime earlier in the fight.

Frisk immediately dropped the branch and began sobbing. Mom, ever the maternal type, began comforting them. She was instructing Frisk on how to get to the Core. She warned them of Asgore, but you barely heard her.

"Please….be good." Mom said sweetly before turning to dust.

There was a silence for a brief few seconds as millions of things flew through your mind. You were mad at Frisk, mad at Mom, mad at your own powerlessness. But you were pulled from this as Frisk dropped to the floor and sobbed onto the dust, futilely trying to pull the dust piles together as if they could fix Mom.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." They sobbed into the stone floors. Then they turn and look at you. "Chara, Chara I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to, I thought that they'd stop me."

You stayed silent as Frisk pulled their knees to their chest. "This can't be happening." They say, "I never wanted this, she was so sweet, she was your Mom and you loved her and you must hate me and I'm a terrible person…"

Frisk was beginning to hyperventilate as they rambled. You couldn't find it in your heart to be mad at them. They were just so Determined to get home...

Oh right. Determination.

"We're going to RESET." You tell Frisk as the tears on your face stop.

Frisk looks at you. "Wh-what?"

"The thing I had you touch. We can try it again." You advise.

Frisk looks baffled. "How…?"

"Do you trust me?" You ask.

Frisk pauses, and the pause hurts you, but they nod.

"I…I need control for a minute, and I'll show you how to do it." You request.

Frisk stands up, wipes there eyes, and nods.

You look inside Frisk's soul, red like yours had been. Deep inside, you find a small, button-like mark. You press it.

RESETting was always disorienting, but this time you were thrown from Frisk's body. You looked around and made sure it worked, and breathed a sigh of relief as you recognized the outside of Home.

Frisk was confused. "So…so this is the save point? This is what it does…it's like time travel."

You nod. "Kind of. Down here, having Determination allows you to create save points and RESET to try things again…or even if you get killed."

Frisk caught a deer-in-the-headlights type look in their eyes. "Then…your mom is…?"

They don't wait for you to finish as they run off to the basement. You follow and watch them nearly fall on their face in surprise as they see Toriel heading to the exit to block the Ruins.

Frisk stops in front of Mom, who begins her speech, but stops when they see Frisk's face. "My child, you look like you've seen a ghost. Do you know something that I do not? No, that is not possible."

The battle begins, and as you're pulled in close to Frisk, you tell them, "see. Told you."

"Should I tell her what happened?" Frisk asks as they dodge a fireball.

You consider it for a moment before shaking your head. "No. That's creepy."

"Then…I know what to do." Frisk replies. Abruptly, they stop dodging attacks.

"What are you doing?!" You yell, trying to take control to get them out of the way of a wave of fire. But their resolve is steadfast and you both take the hit.

"I'm not fighting you!" Frisk yells. This time, they aren't crying, scared, or confused. They are determined.

Mom says nothing and attacks. Frisk stands there and takes every blow. You wince in pain, and Mom looks shocked. Frisk folds their arms, and remains expressionless despite the fact that they had to be feeling this way worse than you were.

"I'm not fighting. Not you, not anyone." Frisk declares with an authority in their voice.

Mom attacks again, but this is a much shorter attack. Each attack hits Frisk and they're cringing, but they hold their ground. You have to admit, you really admire them right now; facing fire magic and enduring every hit.

"Fight or run away!" Mom screams.

"NO!" Frisk thunders back.

Mom's demeanor changes. She begins throwing attacks that go nowhere near Frisk. You raise your eyebrows in surprise. Frisk is calling her bluff.

"I promise I'll be okay!" Frisk reassures her. "You can let me go!"

Mom begins to crack.

"You're doing it!" You cheer for Frisk, and flush a bit as you catch yourself doing so.

Mom finally stops attacking. "Oh…I know you want to go home. But…we could have a good life here."

You glance at Frisk. Their façade cracks for only a second before they keep themselves stone-faced. You wonder how long they've been so good at hiding their emotions.

"Please, go upstairs." Mom says, a begging in her voice.

There is a sadness in Frisk's eyes, and you can tell that they would love to, but they stay put and shake their head firmly.

Mom begins to laugh. "Pathetic, is it not? I cannot save even a single child."

Mom relents and begins to explain to Frisk that she understands, but you breathe a big sigh of relief.

Mom asks Frisk not to come back to the Ruins after she's done talking, and Frisk looks crushed. But, they nod. Mom kneels down and hugs them, but Frisk looks right at you as she does. It's a look of sorrow. They mouth, "I'm sorry," to you, and you aren't entirely sure why.

Mom leaves to go upstairs. As she goes, Frisk runs up to you and tries to hug you again, which is incredibly awkward. "Thank you Chara!"

"F-for what?" You stutter, and it's embarrassing.

"For teaching me about the RESET! I'm so glad she's okay now! " Frisk is absolutely beaming at you, and you can't remember someone ever looking at you this way before. Despite yourself, you give them a big smile back.

"Hey, let's get going, okay?" You suggest, blushing.

As you both leave the Ruins, you jump as Flowey pops out of the ground and laughs.

"Well done. Looks like you figured out how to save her…"

But then the flower narrows it's eyebrows and glares evilly.

"The second time around."


	3. Skelebros and Shenanigans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You'd think the possibility of someone being able to see you would be a good thing...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox

"Don't think I don't know about you." Flowey growled with a distant smile on their face. "You managed to spare everyone for now, haven't you? I bet you just feel soooooooooo warm and fuzzy inside!"

Your mind was racing as they ranted to Frisk. How? How could this flower know? You had never encountered it in your time in the underground. This wasn't right. It was rambling about taking Frisk's soul, and they were visibly shaken.

Frisk listens as Flowey rambles about taking their soul and becoming a god, and grits their teeth, not backing down. You, however, are much more confused.

You're brought back to reality as Flowey retreats underground. Frisk looks at you, startled. "Can some monsters remember the RESETS?"

You shake your head slowly. "I don't…I don't think so. I never ran into anything like that."

Frisk took a deep breath. "Whatever. It's not stopping me. No matter what."

You smile. "That's the spirit."

You and Frisk leave the Ruins and cover your eyes as you step into Snowdin. The white snow was blinding compared to the dark room you were just in. Frisk leans against a tree and rubs their eyes. "Yeesh."

"Yeah I know, the snow was bright." You agree.

"No, not that." Frisk replied, "I never see you smile. It was stunning, you gorgeous thing you."

You go red and groan. "Frisk, come on, that was terrible."

They grin and begin to saunter off. You follow, of course, and Frisk jumps over a log-like branch in the pathway. But as you go a few feet away, there is a snap sound causing you both to whirl around. The branch was snapped clean in half, and there is nothing in sight that could have caused it. Frisk trembles a bit, and you feel a bit uncomfortable yourself. Still, you give each other brief, reassuring smiles and continue on. "You first," they say as you get to a rather rickety looking bridge.

However, as you begin to cross the bridge, a voice from behind Frisk makes you jump.

"Human."

Frisk jumps too and freezes, not turning around. Their eyes lock with yours for support. You look behind them and see a monster of some sort in a hoodie, but you can't make out their face.

"Don't you know how to greet a new friend? Turn around and shake my hand."

The monster holds out its hand. You look to Frisk and give them a firm nod.

Frisk turns around slowly and grabs the monsters hand…and promptly erupts into a fit of giggles at the loud fart that comes out of the whoopee cushion in the monster's hand. You roll your eyes, "Oh jeez."

"heh, the whoopee cushion in the hand gets them every time." The monster pulls it's hood down to reveal a small skeleton. "name's sans, sans the skeleton."

"I'm Frisk, nice to meet you!" Frisk replies, between giggles.

Sans and Frisk talk, and you listen in as Sans explains about his brother, Papyrus. You stop and think though. You had only met one skeleton monster in your time in the underground, and he was nothing like…this.

"hey kid go hide behind this conveniently placed lamp, i think my bro is coming." Sans suggests.

Frisk laughs and does so.

You jump as a loud skeleton runs up from the path behind you, and you instinctively find yourself scrambling over to a spot in front of the lamp.

"LAZYBONES!" The tall skeleton…well, it's somewhere between yelling and talking loudly. "IT'S BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND YOU STILL HAVEN'T RECALIBRATED. YOUR. PUZZLES!"

The two bicker, and you're somewhat baffled that Papyrus hasn't even bothered to notice the giant lamp in the middle of the forest.

But then something happens that makes you uncomfortable.

"aw come on papyrus, i've gotten a ton of work done. a…"

Sans turns his head and looks at you. Not in your direction, looks you right in the eye and winks, "skele-ton.'"

You can hear Frisk stifling a fit of giggles that STILL manages to go over Papyrus' head, but you're feeling incredibly panicked. Did this skeleton really just look right at you and wink? Could he see you? It didn't seem possible.

"working myself…down to the bone!" Sans once again turned towards you and shrugged at his own bad joke. You could feel the color drain from your face. Before you could attempt to say anything, the skeleton turned away and finished its conversation with Papyrus, who stormed off. Frisk, who had missed Sans looking at you, came out from behind the lamp, giggling. You kept your eyes trained on the sentry as he asked Frisk to play along for Papyrus' sake, and Frisk walked off.

"Those two were funny, huh Chara?" Frisk asked you, smiling. "Good thing that lamp was there!"

At the words, a save point spawned, and Frisk touched it without thinking.

"Hmm?" You say, still shaken. "Yeah, though some of those puns seemed a little, 'dead,' to me." You smile slightly at your own bad joke.

Frisk snickers to you. "Ah! I get it." But they were able to look right through your attempt at humor. "You okay there? Where's that pretty smile you had for me at the Ruins, sweet pea?"

The color that drained from your face returned immediately, with interest. "Frisk…"

You were interrupted by Snowdrake sucking you into a battle. You were surprised to see them way out here.

"That's a uh…struggling teen comedian that fights to keep a captive audience." You pause. "Wait for it to tell a joke and then laugh, no matter how bad it is."

Frisk nodded, and dodged the monsters snow magic with relative ease.

"Wowza!" Said Snowdrake with a Boston accent (this always bothered you, but whatever), "I didn't think there was…snow way for you to dodge that."

Frisk laughed. Genuinely, at that, to your astonishment.

"Laughs?! Laughs! I told you dad! I told you!" And with that, Snowdrake ran off.

"The monsters down here are so funny." Frisk said with a smile.

You were relieved that Frisk forgot all about your initial shock and kept going along the path to Snowdin. It wasn't long until you came upon Sans and Papyrus talking.

"OH MY GOD SANS, WHAT IS THAT?!" Papyrus definitely yelled that one, pointing at Frisk.

Sans, however pointed towards you, bringing back this feeling of dread you couldn't shake. "that? i think that's a…" he paused and you thought you saw a faint blue glow in his eye-socket. "…that's a rock."

You look behind you to see that, indeed, you were standing right in front of a rock. You turn back, confused. Maybe he wasn't looking at you? Was he the first couple of times? Maybe he was just looking back at the lamp.

"OH."

"hey bro what's that in front of the rock?"

"…IS IT A HUMAN?"

"(yes)."

Frisk was giggling once more. You have to admit, if you weren't so confused, you'd probably get a kick out of the two yourself.

"THE GREAT PAPYRUS SHALL CATCH YOU HUMAN! MARK MY WORDS!" The two skeletons ran off…well, Sans shuffled off after his brother, leaving you alone with Frisk again.

"Wow, it looked like Sans pointed right at you, Chara." Frisk said.

You were surprised to hear Frisk sound melancholy about it. "Disappointed?"

"I keep hoping maybe someone can see you. Then maybe they can figure out a way to…I don't know. Give a you a physical body again?" Frisk replied, giving you their familiar, I-want-to-help-you-but-I'm-not-sure-how smile.

"Let's just get you to the surface." You answered. Sans gave you the chills. Even if he could help you, you're not sure he would. He reminded you of someone, but for the life of you, you couldn't quite figure out who.

"Yeah, maybe that's the best way to –"

"DON'T MOVE!" You both jump at the voice, and you recognize Doggo peeking out over the top of their sentry station.

Frisk immediately freezes.

"Was something moving?! I can only see things that move!" Doggo sounded panic. Mom didn't let you near Doggo. She said he was a little…loopy.

"Don't move an inch!" Doggo yelled.

You recognized the light blue magic he was spawning as you and Frisk were sucked into battle. Frisk was ready to dodge, but you say, forcefully. "Wait. Blue magic is different, hold still." To make our point, you assert a little bit of control over Frisk's body, causing them to stay still. The blue magic washed over them harmlessly.

Frisk raised an eyebrow to you curiously. "Blue magic only hurts you when you're moving." You explain.

Frisk nodded and looked down at the stick they were holding since they left the Ruins. They threw it, and Doggo immediately chased it, caught it in it's mouth, and brought it back.

"A stick that throws itself?! I need to contemplate this over some dog treats." Doggo exclaimed, and jumped back into his sentry station, a bit shaken.

You shake your head as the two of you walk away.

"Are there lots of dogs down here?" Frisk asks, excitedly.

You nod. "Oh totally. And I bet that stick –"

"Hey look another doggy!" Frisk cuts you off, excitedly, running up to Lesser Dog.

"Hey, Frisk, wait!" You shout, but you're already been sucked into battle.

Lesser Dog took a battle stance, but Frisk ignored this and went right up to Lesser Dog, petting it. Lesser Dog apparently had the same mindset, dropping it's weapon and panting as Frisk continued to pet them.

"You should know…" you begin, but it is already too late. Lesser Dog's head is already stretching into the heavens.

"Chara, check it out!" Frisk tells you excitedly.

The battle is done at this point. "Yeah, Lesser Dog is going where no dog has gone before."

Lesser Dog's magic neck extended back down to the ground, in circles and loops, and all over the ridges of Snowdin. Frisk kept giggling and petting.

"I think you may have a problem." You tell them, dryly. Frisk just sticks their tongue out at you before finally shooing off the Lesser Dog.

"Some of the abilities these monsters have is just silly." Frisk tells you, clearly ecstatic.

You run into Sans and Papyrus once more, this time Papyrus has rigged some sort of electric maze.

"I THINK YOU'LL FIND IT QUITE…SHOCKING!" Papyrus quips. You roll your eyes, but Frisk snorts. And yells, "Good one Papyrus," causing the skeleton to blush a bit.

After getting himself shocked the second Frisk moved forward, Papyrus left a trail of footprints through the maze to hand Frisk the electricity orb. Still, Frisk played along and pretended that the trail was tough to follow.

"LET'S SEE HOW YOU GET THROUGH THE NEXT PUZZLE, HUMAN!" Papyrus cries, quite thrilled with Frisk's progress, and ran off.

"Take it easy on me, oh Great Papyrus!" Frisk replied with a bow. "Have mercy on me." Papyrus was practically skipping away.

"thanks kid," Sans says, watching his brother's retreating figure. "haven't seen pap this excited in weeks."

Frisk smiles at Sans and walks off. As you follow, you turn and look at the skeleton, and you swear he was watching you, but it's hard to tell when he just hand tiny eye lights in black sockets.

"Chara, look! An ice cream cart!" Frisk goes running off towards what you recognize as the Nice Cream cart. You look down at your ghost stomach and realized you haven't tasted anything in years. You missed Nice Cream.

"It's the frozen treat that warms your heart!" Nice Cream guy was always a nice dude. Frisk digs in their pockets for some money and buys two Nice Creams. While Nice Cream Guy checks his flavors, Frisk whispers to you, "What kind do you want?"

"What are you talking about? I'm a ghost." You retort. Frisk just gives you a little smile. You sigh and say, "Chocolate. Always chocolate."

"One chocolate and one strawberry please!" Frisk asks sweetly.

"Here you go kiddo! Have a fantastic day!" Nice Cream guy was ecstatic to have some business. You're not surprised; who would want Nice Cream all the way out in Snowdin? Well. Besides Frisk.

"You too!" Frisk replies, skipping off under a tree, finding a bit of grass that had been spared from the eternal blizzard. They sat down and pat the ground next to them. "Come on, sit with me."

"You know I can't eat, right?" You say, a bit harsher than you actually meant, but you missed food.

Frisk licked their strawberry Nice Cream, and it said, "You're a super cool cat! Have a great day!" They giggled, blushed a bit, and devoured the rest.

Then they look at you, encouragingly. "Well, I let you have control to do the RESET. I thought maybe you could take control and have the chocolate."

You're surprised. "You would…you would let me take control so I could have a Nice Cream?"

Frisk nods. You're speechless. You almost feel like choking up a bit, and you don't know why; it's just an ice cream that compliments you. But, Frisk didn't even let you take control for fights and…

"Thank you, Frisk." You say, quietly, and take control. You unwrap the Nice Cream and take a lick.

"You're a real cutie!" the dairy treat tells you. You can hear Frisk in your (their?) head going, "mmm, yeah you are."

You blush a bit, but savor the chocolate flavored goodness. It had been so long. You take your time with the ice cream. It was sweeter than you ever remembered, and the feeling was the best thing you could remember since dying. And then, without even thinking…you give Frisk their body back. When it hits you, you realize that, yeah, you could have went and tried to get revenge on someone, anyone, before Frisk could stop you. But…you didn't want to. Frisk trusted you.

"Feel better?" Frisk asked.

"About what?" You ask.

They shrug. "Just…in general."

You smile. You've been doing that a lot lately, you notice. You nod at your partner, still a bit speechless.

"hey kiddo," a familiar voice called out. Sans approached Frisk, "i was thinking of selling treats too. you want some fried snow? 5g,"

Frisk giggled. "Nah."

"you're right. i should charge more." Sans replied. Frisk laughed and waved to Sans as they left.

On the way to Snowdin Frisk encountered even more dogs, more…puzzles, if you could call them that, and wacky shenanigans from the skeleton brothers. You had to admit, they were growing on you, even if you didn't find them as funny as Frisk. And you didn't have any more odd…experiences with Sans, so you were able to calm down.

"How do you think Sans keeps getting ahead of us? Papyrus always runs off, but Sans is always just standing around when we leave." Frisk asks you.

You rub your chin. "I really don't know. He must know some shortcuts or something."

As you began to cross the last bridge to Snowdin with Frisk, you saw Papyrus waiting at the other side.

"HUMAN! PREPARE FOR MY MOST DANGEROUS TRAP YET!" Papyrus said.

"How are you going to top that wonderful spaghetti though?!" Frisk yelled back with a wink. The tall skeleton blushed and you could see Sans chuckling behind them. You snickered too, especially considering Frisk couldn't even take a bite of the frozen pasta.

"B-BEHOLD!" Papyrus yelled, managing to keep his composure.

Somehow, spiked balls, spears, a cannon, a flamethrower, and…a…dog, were lowered down from the clouds, surrounding the bridge. For the first time since arriving in Snowdin, Frisk looked alarmed. You were too, this one actually looked like a legitimate trap.

"WHEN I SAY THE WORD, SPIKES WILL SWING! CANNONS WILL FIRE! THINGS WILL MOVE UP AND DOWN! RIGHT WHEN I SAY THE WORD!"

Frisk braced themself and you gave them a worried look. "Be careful." You whisper.

"AND I'M ABOUT TO DO IT!"

"…wait a minute." You say.

"…well?" Sans asks.

Papyrus turns away. "NOTHING, JUST…THIS TRAP SEEMS TOO DIFFICULT! THE GREAT PAPYRUS' TRAPS ARE VERY FAIR!"

Frisk laughs as Papyrus makes an excuse to make the gauntlet disappear, and promises to catch them in town. Somehow, this was a victory for Papyrus. You chuckle a bit yourself. Playing in Snowdin with Asriel would have been a lot more fun if these two had been around at the time.

Finally, the two of you make it to Snowdin, but not before Frisk plays some fetch with the Greater Dog. He pet him too, but not nearly as much when he found out that his neck didn't have magic stretching powers.

"Oh what a cute town this is!" Frisk exclaims excitedly. "Who would think there'd be such a quaint little village like this under a mountain."

The statement spawned a save point, which Frisk touched. "I want to explore everyth-ACHOO!"

You give Frisk an alarmed look. You realize they were shivering, and probably had been for awhile. "Hey, you okay?"

They give you a smile, but you can tell this one isn't the genuine article. "Just a little cold."

"I didn't think about it, but you're wondering around in a sweater and shorts!" You scold. You're sounding a bit like Mom. "Come on, let's get in the Inn and warm you up."

"Oooh, you're gonna keep me warm?" Frisk coos. But then they add, a bit more serious, "You take such good care of me Chara."

You blush again (and wonder if you'd ever get used to Frisk's flirting so that'd stop happening), and usher them into the inn. The innkeeper bunny begins to explain their nightly rate, but upon seeing Frisk, being a young kid and shivering like crazy, tells them to get upstairs and tonight is on the house. Frisk only musters a weak smile as they trot up the stairs into the room and collapse under the covers of the bed. They smile at you and pat the spot next to them on the bed. You crawl up next to them and look at the ceiling.

"Chara?"

You look over at Frisk, who is just barely hanging on to consciousness. "Hm?"

"Will you, one day, tell me why you climbed the mountain? If I tell you?"

You're not sure what compels you. Maybe it's just the way they're looking at you. Maybe it's because they bought you a Nice Cream. Maybe they're just rubbing off on you. But you give them a small smirk and say, "Sure, Frisk. Now go to sleep."

You didn't need to tell them twice as they began snoring.

Were all humans like this? None of the ones in your village had ever, ever been anything like Frisk. But, you had never met any of them outside of the village, and the ones you went to school with had been jerks. But, the whole village grew up telling them you were cursed.

What if you had been wrong? You wrestled with the thought. Being wrong meant that everything – your whole plan, the fusion, Asriel's death, and your death – had all been in vain. All of it, for nothing. Then again, if you weren't a ghost bound to that patch of flowers, you'd have never met Frisk to even think about these things.

How would things be if you had succeeded? You still hated the villagers. If Asriel hadn't stopped you, they would be dead. You could have taken their souls and broken the barrier.

And then war would have broken out. You started thinking weird things you had never considered before: yeah, you were powerful, but what if a human had killed Mom or Dad?

What if Frisk got killed?

The thoughts made you wonder what would have happened if you had just let it go, and lived with Mom, Dad, and Asriel. You couldn't just abandon that ideal for revenge. Would those kids have still fallen down? Would they come live with you too?

You rolled over. What-ifs weren't doing you any good, you supposed. You closed your eyes and drifted off to, "sleep."

"Rise and shine!" Frisk called to you, snapping you into reality.

You pull yourself up to see Frisk was already up and at the door. "Looks like you're feeling better," you comment.

They nod. "Let's go explore a bit and see if Papyrus tries to stop us!"

You roll your eyes, not too worried about the tall goofball, but follow as Frisk bounds down the stairs. At the bottom, the innkeeper smiles to Frisk, "Oh you poor dear, I'm so glad to see you feeling better. You were just the saddest sight last night when you stumbled in."

"Thank you so much ma'am!" Frisk replied, sincerely in their honeyed voice. "I'll make it up to you."

The innkeeper shook their head. "Nonsense. Stay warm! You don't have fur like most of us."

Frisk waved and assured the bunny they would be fine.

Walking along Snowdin, Frisk stopped and said hello to nearly every monster in their way. "Oh Chara, a Christmas tree!" They were quite surprised, and the friendly bear monster explained the tradition to Frisk. As you walked away, Frisk looked at you and added, "that's so funny, how different things are down here, but in some ways it's a lot like the surface."

You gave a vague nod, but you couldn't really comment. Your family did not celebrate holidays. Father always said there was nothing worth celebrating ever since you took your birthmother away. You push those thoughts out of your head.

Frisk stopped in Grillby's and was ecstatic to see all of the dogs. He chatted them all up a bit before heading the, "Librarby," and read up on monster history. Well, they picked up an interesting book and had you read it to them, but you didn't mind because you used to love those books too.

"So that's why I haven't had to use the bathroom since I got here." Frisk mused as they went through the books. They became rather disturbed at how monsters bodies were made of magic, and how easily a human with the intent to kill would hurt them. Overall though, Frisk was a curious kid, you noted, and was absolutely fascinated by how the underground worked.

When they found Sans and Papyrus' house, they knocked on the door, but no one answered. "I bet they're waiting for you at the end of town." You advise, nodding towards the path out of Snowdin. You remember about blue attacks, right? Sans made it sound like Papyrus is going to have a couple for you."

Frisk nodded and left Snowdin, heading through the fog. You could vaguely make out a figure at the end of the fog waiting for you.

"HUMAN!"

Ah, right on cue, you thought.

"I CAN'T IMAGINE HOW IT MUST FEEL. TO FIND SOMEONE WHO LOVES PUZZLES AND SPAGHETTI AS MUCH AS YOU DO."

Frisk giggled throughout Papyrus' speech. But stopped when Papyrus stopped and said that they HAD to capture them, for the sake of Undyne and the King.

You could feel yourself sucked into battle with Frisk.

Out of habit, you told Frisk what you knew about the monster, despite having met them at the same time they did. "That's Papyrus. He uh…likes to say Nyeh Heh Heh?"

"NYEH HEH HEH, HUMAN!"

Papyrus flung a few magic bones to Frisk, but they all slid across the ground, making it really easy for Frisk to step out of the way.

"Aw, Papyrus, I don't want to fight you! You're way too cute!" Frisk said, pouting a little.

"F-FLIRTING?! YOU MUST BE SERIOUS ABOUT THAT DATE. BUT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE HIGH STANDARDS, HUMAN!"

"I can make spaghetti." Frisk answers.

"OH NO! YOU'RE MEETING ALL MY STANDARDS! B-BATTLE FIRST! WE CAN DATE LATER."

Again, Papyrus sent out a few bones, but Frisk didn't even need to dodge them.

Frisk shook their head. "Nope."

"SO YOU WON'T ATTACK HUH, THEN PREPARE FOR MY FABLED BLUE ATTACK!"

Frisk looks at you and winks, and you give them a thumbs up. "You got this," you encourage. Frisk stands perfectly still against a wave of blue bones. Nothing happens. But then you both hear a little, "plink," noise, and Frisk is glowing a dark blue color.

"Huh?!" You both cry.

"YOU'RE BLUE NOW. THAT'S MY ATTACK."

Papyrus begins sending more and more waves of bones at Frisk. Frisk tries to dodge, but they're rooted to the spot, and begins getting hit by the bones. They cry out and pain, and you can see why; Papyrus is clearly tougher than he looks.

"Blue Magic can root you to the ground. You're going to have to jump over the bones!" You shout.

Frisk does their best to jump over the spells. They try to stammer a response to Papyrus, to flirt with him, but to no avail. "He's dabbing MTT brand perfume behind his ears for your date," you advise, "flirting isn't going to escalate this battle. Keep dodging for awhile, he'll wear himself out!"

The bone attacks became even more complicated, despite the fact that Papyrus didn't seem to actually be all that focused on the battle. He was rattling his bones, rambling on about joining the Royal Guard, and how popular he would be for catching a human.

"…BUT COULD ANYONE LIKE ME…AS SINCERELY AS YOU?"

Frisk shook their head. "No way! I like you so much I can feel it in my bones!"

You had been tense the since Frisk had turned blue, but now you stopped and slapped your head to your forehead. "Damn it, Frisk." They sneak a smirk at you.

"THEN LET'S SEE IF YOU CAN RESIST MY…SPECIAL ATTACK!"

You could tell he was having doubts now, and was beginning to get worn down from the constant magic use.

Frisk dodged a few more attacks as Papyrus hyped up his special move. Finally, he unleashed it…only for a small, annoying dog to run up and snatch the giant bone out of the air, running off.

Frisk burst out laughing as Papyrus yelled after the dog. You're laughing too, never would have expected that.

"FINE…WELL, HERE'S A COMPLETELY REGULAR ATTACK."

"Frisk, look out, Papyrus is preparing a regular attack!" You chuckle, and Frisk snickered at you.

Although this was a long attack. Frisk had a hard time with it. And then…there was an absolutely massive wave of bones that Frisk could never completely hurdle over.

"Chara, help!" They whispered.

You didn't need to be told twice. Without a thought, you took control – but Frisk was there too. Together, you somehow managed to jump completely over all the bones, including a giant one at the end that had to have been taller than Papyrus himself. The skeleton's jaw dropped as you and Frisk plopped back down on the ground, and you released control.

"Thanks." Frisk whispered to you. You gave them a thumbs up.

Papyrus wheezed. "WELL HUMAN…IT IS QUITE CLEAR THAT YOU COULD NEVER DEFEAT THE GREAT PAPYRUS! I WILL CONSIDER THIS A STALEMATE. I SHALL SHOW YOU MERCY, AND SPARE YOU!"

"What a saint." You reply dryly. Frisk, however dashes up to Papyrus, leaps into their arms, and shouts, "Let's be friends Papyrus!"

"WOWIE! WE HAVEN'T EVEN HAD OUR FIRST DATE, AND I'VE ALREADY MANAGED TO HIT THE FRIEND ZONE! COME, HUMAN! LET'S GO ON THAT DATE! I HAVE THE PERFECT PLACE TO GO!"

You smile as you watch Frisk and Papyrus walk off. Frisk looks over their shoulder and beckons you to come with them.

You follow. A little extra time in Snowdin couldn't hurt.


	4. History and Spears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that you have a friend, how are you going to tell them about your past?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox
> 
> Thanks to all the comments and Kudos on this story!

You aren't certain, but you think you were laughing all throughout Frisk's, "date," with Papyrus; from the return of the thieving dog, Sans' pet rock, Fluffy Bunny Pop-up Books, and Papyrus' race car bed, the whole thing was more bizarre than you could have ever imagined. You really lost it though when Frisk found the spaghetti under the skeleton's hat. They took a small bite of it, and made just the funniest reaction you had ever seen in your life.

"THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL TRY TO HELP YOU SETTLE FOR SECOND BEST, BY BEING YOUR COOL FRIEND!" Papyrus crowed, doing his best to let Frisk down gently.

Frisk just giggled and replied, "Aw thanks Papyrus, you're a great friend."

You and Frisk got up to leave when Papyrus looked at the clock. "HUMAN, IT IS VERY LATE IN THE EVENING! WOULD YOU LIKE TO SPEND THE NIGHT ON MY COUCH BEFORE LEAVING?! YOU SHALL STAY THERE, NOT IN MY BED, AS THERE WILL BE NO PLATONIC CUDDLING."

You did your best not to die again from this statement. Frisk chuckled too and agreed to spend the night on the couch. Papyrus grabbed some blankets and a pillow and laid them out across the couch.

"I SHALL TRY NOT TO WAKE YOU UP AT FOUR WHEN I GET UP FOR MY PRE-SENTRY TRAINING REGIMEN!"

Frisk's eyes widened. "Training regimen? That's really early."

Papyrus beamed with pride. "YES, I USED TO TRAIN WITH CAPTAIN UNDYNE, BUT SHE HAS DECIDED SHE TRUSTS ME TO PERFORM THE FOUR HOUR JOG ON MY OWN! GOODNIGHT HUMAN!"

"Goodnight Papyrus," Frisk replied with their usual magnetic smile, "thanks for everything!"

Frisk snuggled under the blankets and looked at you, over by the television. They pointed to the other end of the couch. "Lay with me?" Their tone wasn't the usual flirty kind, so you took it as an innocent request. You laid on the other end of the large sofa.

"So," Frisk whispered, "what did you think of my first date?"

You snorted. "You saw me laughing, Frisk come on. What a nutjob. Still, he seems like a nice enough monster. I never knew him when I was alive."

"Sans either?"

You shook your head. "Nope. There was a skeleton, but….I can't really remember anything about him. He was the Royal Scientist though. I'm sure you'll run in to him."

Frisk nodded. But you could tell something was on their mind. "Chara, do you remember when Papyrus said he wanted to experience driving down the road in a car with the wind in his hair?"

"Of course," You answer, "and he's got such a luxurious mane of it."

Frisk didn't laugh at your joke, but continued, "could we...could we free the monsters?"

Uh oh. You were hoping this wouldn't come up. You stalled though, "when we go to Waterfall tomorrow, there are some plaques that teach about the barrier that you could re – that I could read to you." You were glad you caught yourself.

Frisk's smile returned. "I'd like that Chara," they whisper, "you're such a good friend."

"Friend?" You blurt out before you can process.

"Well of course," Frisk's whisper got even quieter, "after all we've been through? Of course we're…friends."

You weren't sure why they paused, and they almost sounded sad, but you had never had a human friend before. But, you don't remember liking someone this much before either, and Frisk had really changed your opinion on things. "Yeah," you reply, "Of course. Friends." You smile back.

Frisk yawns and rolls over, "good. I'm sleepy though. Night, Chara."

"Sweet dreams, Frisk."

Frisk fell asleep fairly quickly, but you always had trouble falling asleep. More thoughts of what ifs flew through your mind. To break the barrier, Dad would need Frisk to give up their Soul to join the six others, and the thought scared you. How disappointed would Frisk be? You were dreading that for tomorrow, but you would just cross that bridge when you got there.

You actually had some dreams that night, but it was more of just memories of your first death.

"Chara! Stay determined!" Dad's voice yelled to you as your insides were falling apart. But to no avail, as you were determined…determined to die. Determined to give your soul to your brother.

"hey kiddo, rise and shine," came a familiar voice, pulling you awake.

Sans was nudging Frisk at the other end of the couch, and your partner yawned and stretch. "Good morning Sans," Frisk yawned.

"hey. you probably need to get going if you want tibia on your way." Sans replied.

Frisk half-grinned at the joke as they rubbed sleep out of their eyes. "Okay. We'll be on our way."

Sans demeanor changed for a brief second as he asked, "we?"

You felt the panic crawl on your back from yesterday, when you thought Sans looked at you. But Frisk, ever the clever one, replied, "Me. Sorry, had a dream about a friend."

"ok, no problem. just take care of yourself." Sans said, going back to his lax attitude.

Frisk left soon after with yourself in tow. They headed through the dense fog that surrounded the entrance to Waterfall. "Yikes it warms up quick," They say, as the snow melts down in to muddy gravel with every step they take.

"The Underground is naturally cold," you state, "but the closer to the CORE, the higher the temperature's towards the center of the earth create different climates."

Frisk looked at you with admiration, and it felt good when you were able to teach them. Mom had always wanted to be a teacher, and you had thought it would always be fun too.

As you got to the entrance, you were surprised to see another sentry station, manned by none other than Sans. Frisk waved to them.

"hey kid, i'm thinking of going on a break to grillby's." Sans stepped out from behind the station, "want to come with? i know a shortcut."

Frisk nodded and followed Sans. You began to as well, but before your eyes Frisk and Sans disappeared.

"F-Frisk?" You call out, a bit panicked. You began to feel that hazy, sluggish feeling that kicked in whenever Frisk got too far away from you, but it was much more intense than before. You immediately felt everything go dark.

You had to blink a few times to orient yourself to your surroundings as you realize you were in Grillby's. To your left was Sans, and to his left Frisk sat next to him, giggling as Sans downed a bottle of ketchup. Frisk looked over Sans and gave you a discreet smile as they noticed your presence.

"…so anyway kid, i wanted to ask you," Sans leaned a bit closer to Frisk and his voice lowered, "you know anything about a flower that talks to people?"

Frisk took a very uncomfortable face and nodded. "Yeah…I have."

"yeah, the echo flowers," Sans replied nonchalantly, turning back to face the bar, "think someone's trying to prank papyrus with them. anyway, keep an eye out for me, ok? i should get going. can't believe you kept me away for so long!"

As Sans turned in his seat, he swung the swivel stool away from Frisk and towards you. He paused – very briefly, but noticeable – right in front of you. For a split second he looked right at you before turning and walking out, saying something to Frisk, which you didn't catch since you had chills running down your spine.

Frisk motioned for you to follow, realizing they couldn't talk to you in the middle of the bar. You nodded and wordlessly followed them, trying to calm your nerves.

"Hey," Frisk asked, voice dripping with concern. Two days ago you'd feel mad because this would make you feel weak, but now Frisk's concern made you feel warm inside. "What happened? You missed most of what Sans was saying."

You shrugged and said, "you guys just kind of disappeared. I got all dizzy and blacked out, next thing I know I'm with you guys at the bar. What did I miss?"

Frisk frowned, "I'm sorry. I didn't think he'd teleport us. At least now we know how he's been getting around." Frisk looked around before continuing. "First, he clearly really cares about his brother. It's sweet! But," Frisk whispered, "I think Flowey has been messing with Papyrus. Whispering stuff to him."

You frown as well. "That's no good. We'll just have to be careful."

You were both back to the entrance of Waterfall. Frisk stopped and took a big whiff of the rush water. A SAVE point was spawned, and Frisk touched it.

You pointed to a blue flower with a seahorse type monster standing by it. "That's one of those Echo flowers that Sans was telling you about."

Frisk walked over to the flower, and it said, "All that gives my life meaning is explaining the Echo Flower."

You and Frisk both look at the seahorse monster with raised eyebrows. "Don't uh….Don't believe everything you hear from a flower," he said before running off, embarrassed.

"YO!" A voice yelled out from behind you, and you both turn to see Monster Kid charging towards Frisk. They had spoken a bit the day before. He came to a stop in front of Frisk when he fell face first, and pulled himself back up. You snickered a bit, but Frisk gave you a small glare for being rude, so you stopped.

"Are you here to see Undyne too?" Monster Kid was beside himself with excitement.

"That's the captain of the guard, right?" Frisk asked, "No, but she's down this way?"

"Yeah, yo, she's supposed to be hunting a human. I want to see her fight it!" Monster Kid clearly didn't realize Frisk was a human, which seemed astonishingly dense to you, but you kept your mouth shut as they said, "Come on dude, let's go."

Frisk shrugged and followed Monster kid as they charged ahead. You leaned in and whispered, "Be careful. I don't think the Captain of the guard is going to be as easy to get past as Papyrus."

Frisk nodded back, "I know. Maybe the Monster Kid could help me out."

As the three of you trod deeper into Waterfall, Monster Kid rushing far ahead of you, he stopped and made a motion with his head for you to sneak into some tall grass with him. Frisk quietly crawls into the grass with him. You, of course, don't bother since you just float through it and are invisible anyway.

"C-CAPTAIN UNDYNE!"

You recognize the tall skeleton's voice. They were coming up from a ledge above the grass patch. Frisk and Monster Kid both froze and looked toward it. You float up to the ledge and look over to see a very menacing person in full plate armor being approached by Papyrus. They said something inaudible to Papyrus, who answered, "OF COURSE I FOUGHT THE HUMAN! I FOUGHT VALIANTLY."

Captain Undyne asked something else, "DID I CAPTURE THEM? WELL, I…NO. BUT UNDYNE! YOU DON'T HAVE TO FIGHT THEM, THEY'RE – "

But Undyne gave him a look, and Papyrus stopped. "OF COURSE. I'LL HELP YOU ANYWAY I CAN."

You looked down to Frisk, who heard the whole conversation. They looked concerned, although Monster Kid was beside himself with excitement. Frisk tried to sneak through the rest of the grass, but it rustled loudly. You look over to see Undyne clanging loudly over to the ledge. You hiss, "Frisk, stop!"

They heard you and stopped before the edge of the grass, and laid as flatly as possible against the ground. Undyne stared into the grass, scanning for life. But she backed away after a few moments. You breathed a sigh of relief.

You gave Frisk a thumbs up and they emerged from the grass, followed by Monster Kid.

"Yo," the kid hollered, "Did you see how she was looking almost right at you?! That's so amazing! I'm jealous. Come on, let's go see her fight the human!"

He turned and ran off, but not before face planting once more.

You floated down next to Frisk as they followed the eager boy. "You think he really has no idea?"

Frisk shrugged, "I don't know, but it's kind of funny."

As you walked through Waterfall, you kept your promise and read the plaques on the wall, that detailed the war of monsters and humans. The tale made Frisk incredibly sad. "The monsters are so nice though," Frisk moaned, "it's always some nasty people that have to ruin it for everyone else."

You scoffed, "I think most people are nasty."

"Even me?" Frisk actually seemed a bit hurt when they asked.

You thought carefully before you answered. "You…I've never met anyone like you, Frisk. "

"Maybe you were just hanging out with the wrong people, Chara." Frisk replied, looking at their feet.

You say nothing. You never hung out with anyone outside of your father and older siblings, who all told you that you were a mistake. So maybe Frisk was right.

You were interrupted by Frisk's phone ringing. They barely managed to answer with the, "h," in hello when a voice came screaming from the receiver, "YES, HELLO HUMAN, THIS IS YOUR BEST FRIEND PAPYRUS. WHAT ARE YOU WEARING? I'M ASKING FOR A FRIEND!"

Frisk looked at you and you shrugged. "He's probably telling Undyne," you answer, "make something up."

"I'm wearing a tutu!" Frisk blurted out. You slapped your forehead as they hung up, and they told you, "I'm not good at lying."

"Clearly," you snicker back, as you both continued.

Frisk, meanwhile, was marveling at the glittering stones that covered the caverns. "It's so beautiful," they breathed. They made an attempt to hold your hand, but forgot that their hand went right though yours. You pretended not to notice, but you blushed a bit.

Frisk listened to the echo flowers, and became sad once more to hear how many of the monsters were wishing for freedom. It made you sad too, but if you and Asriel failed, you didn't think that Frisk could hope to match your plan.

You read more of the plaques, and they explained how monsters could absorb human souls, and what monstrous power would come from such a creature. By now, you were on one of the docks.

"Has that ever happened?" Frisk asked.

You paused. You knew damn well what they were asking, but you played it dumb, "has what?"

"A human or monster absorbing the other's soul," Frisk answered, "it sounds scary."

You didn't want to lie to Frisk, but you wondered if they'd still like you if they knew what you had done. However, you were pulled from the dilemma by the sound of clomping metal . You look to the left of you to see Undyne across the river, preparing some magical spears. "Frisk, run!" You shout, pointing to the assailant.

They didn't need to be told twice. Frisk took off down the dock, narrowly avoiding being skewered by the captain of the guard. You chased after them of course, yelling, "duck," or, "swerve to the left," depending on how Undyne was attacking. Frisk's reactions were perfectly in tune with your observations, and managed to escape past Undyne's reach, diving in to a patch of tall grass. "Is it safe?" They whispered.

You peered down the path where you had both come from, but could hear clomping in the distance. "I think she's coming," you advised, "stay put."

Your heart was racing though as Undyne came stomping towards the grass, and began to search through it. "THERE YOU ARE!" She growled, making you jump as she reached down to grab something.

"Frisk, no!" You cried out, worried. Their last save had been awhile ago, and you knew they'd be okay, but you were still concerned about them getting hurt.

But to your surprise, Undyne pulled Monster Kid up from the patch of grass. Wordlessly, but annoyed, Undyne put the kid down and walked away. You let out a sigh of relief.

"UNDYNE TOUCHED MY FACE!" Monster Kid was gushing as they burst forth from the tall grass. Frisk giggled as they followed. The Kid took off, leaving you two alone once again.

"hey kiddo," came the familiar voice of Sans once again, standing by a telescope in one of the caverns, "take a look through the telescope. no charge just this once," he added with a wink.

Frisk grinned and looked through the telescope, but said, "I don't see anything."

As they pulled back you burst into laughter; Sans had put ink on the lens, surrounding Frisk's eye with an orange color.

"huh. well i'll give you a full refund." Sans replied, straight faced.

You had pulled the same joke on Asriel long ago, so you couldn't help but crack up. Once out of ear shot, Frisk gave you an annoyed look. "What's so funny?"

You snicker and point to a puddle. Frisk goes and looks and giggles themselves. "That goofball!" They splash water onto their face and clean off the ink and ask, "did I get it all?"

You got a bit closer and nodded, "yeah. Come on, let's get moving."

More plaques came up. You swallowed hard and went over the monster history, how not a single soul was taken, and that seven human souls would be needed to break the barrier.

"Doesn't sound like much of a war," Frisk replied to you, sadly. "Is…is that why you hated or hate humanity, Chara?"

You purposely ignore this question. "So you would be the last soul, Frisk."

Frisk was good at picking up on hints that you didn't want to talk about it, so they dropped it. These feelings were new to you; you never had friends, and now you were worried about what would happen if Frisk knew that you had come so close to murdering your father and five of his friends. Maybe more, if the situation had called for it. You told Asriel six, but if war broke out, or more people attacked, you weren't too concerned about numbers.

You had been murderous. You came right to the edge of killing, and were stopped by Asriel. How would Frisk look at you? You could tell they were a little disappointed by you blowing off their question, but that would be nothing compared to the truth of your past.

Without warning, you could feel yourselves being pulled into a battle, but there were no monsters around. Frisk looked at you, confused. You shrugged, but then nodded to the corner of the room. "That's Shyren," you explain, "she's hiding in the corner, but somehow we encountered her."

"Why are we battling her when she's hiding from us?" Frisk asks.

"Well," you strain to remember Shyren, she kept to herself mostly, "last I remember Shyren was trying to make it big with some other monsters, but maybe she's still shy about her voice."

Frisk nods, and begins humming a little melody. You raise your eyebrows at them, curiously. Shyren picks up on their tune and begins singing in a dialect you didn't understand. Dad had once told you that Monsters used to use a different language, but adapted to human languages in an attempt to prevent a war.

Shyren's singing manifested into magic bullets, which charged at Frisk. To your astonishment, they kept humming without breaking tune, and danced around the magic. Shyren seemed more excited about this, and began to sway and sing in tune with Frisk as well. Monsters began to hear the commotion and come to see. Aaron,Woshua, and other types of monster families you recognized all began to crowd the room.

"You guys are really good," you tell Frisk as they dance and hum, "I think Sans is in the back selling tickets made of toilet paper."

Frisk just smiled as they twirled and hummed. You felt a weird feeling in the pit of your stomach. You didn't know why, but you couldn't take your eyes off Frisk.

More and more monsters came in to see the show. Frisk and Shyren looked at each other and laughed after awhile.

"The tours. The groupies. It's all so tempting. You could live in Waterfall and be rockstars," you joked to Frisk, as they waved goodbye to Shyren.

"I just have my own journey to go on." Frisk replied with a giggle, "I saw you watching."

"That was something else," you said, blushing.

As you approached what you had always called the, "rainy room," you point out the umbrella's off to the side of the room, "you'll want one of those."

Frisk nods and grabs one, and smiles at the rain that begins falling down on them. "I love the rain. If I lived down here, I'd never want to leave this place."

"Hey yo, you've got an umbrella!" Monster Kid yelled, running up and getting under the umbrella with Frisk. Frisk nodded and walked with Monster Kid. Their patience baffled you, as you found Monster Kid a bit annoying, but Frisk smiled and chatted with them. But Frisk seemed to get along with everyone.

Then again, you got along with most of the monsters when you fell, hadn't you? They all heralded you as the future of humans and monsters though, so perhaps it was different.

"So this one time, the king, Asgore, came to my school," Kid rambled, "and he gave us all a flower to take care of. Something about responsibility."

"I had to do something like that once, it was with an egg though," Frisk replied, "had to make sure it didn't crack and things like that. It was weird."

Monster Kid laughed, "Wouldn't it be cool if Undyne came to the class and beat up the teacher?!"

Frisk laughed a bit but didn't say anything, either because they were nervous about fighting Undyne or because they didn't find the thought of Undyne fighting a teacher to be all that great.

"I guess Undyne would never hurt an innocent person." Monster Kid added.

The three of you walked past the view of the castle, and you smiled. You were going to New Home, even if Dad couldn't see you. It would be nice to see it again.

At the end of the long path, Monster Kid helped Frisk up a high ledge before running off. You, or course, just floated up after them. You continued on across a dock, silently. Frisk seemed distracted.

"What's on your mind?" You ask.

"For someone so secretive," Frisk answered, "you're awfully nosy. And just…these monsters are all such good people, you know? It's not fair. It's terrible that they were treated so poorly by people, however long ago. I wish they could be happy. I just wonder if maybe they'd be better off if I…"

You float alongside them, patiently. They're clearly struggling with the words.

"I wonder if it would be better off for me to just give up my soul. Then Papyrus and Sans and your parents could be free."

You raised your eyebrows at Frisk. "Whoa. Frisk, that's not like you. What happened to getting to the surface no matter what?"

Frisk shook their head and gave you a sad smile. "You're right. I'm being silly. I have to make it back! And maybe I can help them that way. Find six people to come though the barrier with me to break it."

You're still concerned, but there is a glowing that's coming from the dock under the two of you. It's a faint, blue color, just like…

"Frisk, run! It's Undyne again!" You shout.

Frisk took off at the sound of your voice, just in time to avoid the magic spears that were bursting through the floor where you had both been. The winding path had numerous dead ends that tripped Frisk up, but they kept going until finally, they hit the end of the dock. It was pitch black all around them and neither of them could see where the water rushing down the walls stopped below. The spears had stopped as well.

"Dead end," Frisk mumbled, turning around cautiously.

But Undyne was there behind you. Frisk froze up but timidly raised their hand to wave. "Hey, listen, can we just talk for a minute?"

Undyne wasn't in a talking mood. She conjured up some spears and sent them crashing through the dock Frisk was on, causing it to crack and send them plummeting into the abyss below.

"FRISK, NO!" You screamed, but it was too late. You were too far away from them, and your vision was beginning to blur. Everything went dark.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You could hear Dad telling you to stay determined. You could hear mom promising you that chocolate bar if you got better.

You could hear your brother.

"Oh, you've fallen down, haven't you? What's your name? Chara? That's a nice name! My name is…"

You catapulted into a sitting position and looked around. You were in the Waterfall garbage dump, on an odd patch of buttercups. Frisk lay next to you, stirring themselves. "Frisk, are you okay?"

Frisk slowly pulled themselves to a sitting position and nodded.

"Thank God, you haven't saved in awhile and the way you were talking about your soul I was worried about your determination," you rambled, but Frisk wasn't really listening.

"Chara," they whispered, "whose voice was that?"

You locked up, chest tightening. How could Frisk have heard that? "W-what?"

"That was a memory from when you fell down, right?" Frisk asked, still quietly.

You weren't ready to tell Frisk about Asriel. Because then they'd want to know what happened to him. You stood up and advised, "Come on, let's get going."

You pretended not to notice the hurt expression on Frisk's face as you ignored them. But the curious kid began checking out the piles of garbage, surprised to see what managed to make it's way down from the human world.

"Some brands you recognize?" You ask, and they nod.

Seeing the garbage flow down from the ceiling down into the abyss, you were surprised to see a SAVE point spawn. Frisk touched it and said to you, "Don't worry about my determination, Chara."

You could tell they were a little upset with you. Part of it made you mad that they were being so nosy, but the rest of you just felt guilty. You cared about Frisk, and it sucked to hurt their feelings by being so closed off to them.

As they waded through the wet pools of trash, you both passed another training dummy.

"Take a whack at it?" You offer to them, trying to lighten the mood.

Frisk looked at the dummy, shook their head and walked away. As they got to dry ground, however, the dummy called out to you, causing you both to jump.

"Hold it, HOLD IT, HOLD IT!"

The dummy flew over to Frisk in a rage, startling them.

"Chicken, huh?! Well let me tell you something, I had a ghost relative who haunted a dummy like this in the Ruins. They had a pretty good life until YOU CAME ALONG!"

Frisk looked around and pointed to themselves. "Me?"

"YES YOU!" The dummy screeched, shaking and floating about, "THE THINGS YOU SAID! YOU'RE A MONSTER!"

"What, did you flirt with the dummy too?" You sneered.

"I'M TAKING YOUR SOUL, BUDDY!"

You felt yourself get sucked into a battle with Frisk.

Frisk attempted to talk to the mad dummy, but it wasn't listening. It just kept attacking, causing Frisk to dodge.

"It's not one for conversation, it seems," you deadpan.

Frisk managed to trick the dummy's bullets into hitting the dummy, causing him to freak out and replace them with robotic missiles. Frisk, being crafty, just did the same thing with these. As the dummy screamed and shook, you pointed out it looked like an armless ska dance. Frisk was more annoyed than anything though.

"dummies, DUMMIES, DUMMIES!" Yelled the Mad Dummy, "You're all fired. WHO NEEDS FRIENDS WHEN I HAVE KNIVES!"

The dummy threw a knife at Frisk, who dodged to the side, alarmed. The knife splashed into the water.

"I'M OUT OF KNIVES!" Yelled the dummy, "But since you can't hurt me, and I can't hurt you, I'll just trap you in this battle…forev-OW!"

You saw magic tears falling down onto the dummy, causing it to flee. Frisk excitedly realized Napstablook had come to say hi. You had forgotten they had, "fought earlier." You were a lot more stand-off-ish in the Ruins and had ignored that battle. But Frisk had liked them, and they had showed him that Spider Bake Sale.

As soon as Frisk greeted Napstablook, they got shy and replied, "oh…I'm sorry your friend left. Oh…."

The floated off, but Frisk gave chase. "Oh…would you like to hang out with me?"

Frisk nodded, "Sure thing Naps!"

You chuckled. "Cute nickname, Frisk."

They ignored you, and you frowned. They followed Napstablook to his house, and went inside. You hung around and watched them listen to some music that the ghost had mixed (it wasn't bad), watched Frisk try to each a ghost sandwich, and then they played a game called, "lay on the floor and feel like garbage," for awhile. Frisk seemed to enjoy it, so you laid down with them for awhile. You glanced over at Frisk. They seemed deep in thought, and you knew they were still concerned about the shared dream the two of you had. But things got a little fuzzy as you laid there, and Frisk seemed to space out too. After awhile, they finally got up.

"Oh…it was nice to have company for all that. Thanks," Napstablook said.

Frisk smiled and waved as they left. They continued down the path that you directed them to the Core, but didn't talk to you. They were clearly angry with you and it was starting to get on your nerves. They knew you weren't ready to talk about that stuff.

They stopped by a shop and you were surprised to see Gerson running it. Frisk asked them about the Delta Rune, and Gerson explained all about the symbol or monsters, and the prophecy. Frisk was fascinated by the story and bought a Sea Tea for the road.

"Gerson knew my Dad for a long time," You explained to Frisk. "He'd come over and tell stories about his adventuring days. He never talked about the war though."

"That sounds like a lot of fun," Frisk answered, "did he tell them to whoever I heard in that dream?"

You sighed. Frisk's sassy response may have been warranted, but it still hurt. "Frisk, look…I know I told you I'd tell you about when I came here, but I'm just not ready yet. It's hard, okay?"

Their expression softened. "That's all you had to say Chara." They beamed at you once more and you let out a sigh of relief.

"hOI!" A voice shouted out, interrupting the forgiveness moment you were having. "SPECIAL ENEMY TEMMIE HERE TO DEFEAT YOU!"

Frisk sneezed and marveled at the Temmie that had popped up in front of us. The Temmie tried to pet Frisk, but they kept sneezing. "What' this cutie?"

"Oh!" You answer, "that's a Temmie. It loves to pet cute humans, but it looks like you're allergic."

Frisk began blushing pretty hard and giggled at you.

"What's so funny?" You ask, before it hit you. You had called Frisk cute. You went red.

"I knew you liked me," Frisk winked when they saw the color of your face.

"HOI!" yelled the Temmie.

"HOI!" Yelled Frisk back.

"HOI!" Temmie replied.

"Um…BOI!" Frisk shouted, waving.

"K, bOI!" Temmie said, turning and running off. Frisk was beside themselves with laughter, and followed after the Temmie.

"Frisk," you call to them, giving chase, "come on, the CORE is this way!"

Frisk just laughed and said, "Let's see if there are more."

You rolled your eyes and replied, "Temmie's are rare Frisk I doubt you'll find," you pause though as you round a corner you had never seen before, stumbling onto a corridor filled with Temmie's, "…more."

Frisk gave you a sly grin. "Maybe to find all the Temmie's you just needed more…"

You leaned forward as they paused.

"…de-temmie-nation." Frisk finished, very proud of their joke.

You groaned, but couldn't keep yourself from smiling. "Painful, Frisk. Painful."

Maybe you were better off when they weren't talking to you.


	5. Death and Robots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You're baffled by Frisk befriending people actively trying to kill them, but if anyone can, it's them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox
> 
> Thanks to all the comments and Kudos! You guys rock!

"Chara, why can't I find the money to pay for Temmie's college?"

"Frisk you've got like fifty gold on you. And that's only because the Temmie bought that bandanna you found off you."

"Chara, a good education is the key to a successful future."

"Frisk, no."

"Frisk, yes!"

You grinned as you and Frisk continued this argument after a bizarre stay in the Temmie village.

"You get me a body, I'll convince my Dad to pay for Temmie to go to college." You replied.

Frisk beamed. "Just you watch, cutie pie."

You blushed again, but thankfully you didn't think Frisk could see it as you went through a darkened corridor of Waterfall. Occasionally Frisk found a lamp to flick on. "Hey, Chara, am I heading the right away?"

"I…think so." You replied. It had been awhile. But, as Frisk began to slosh through some water, you became more confident. "Yeah, you're heading the right way, there's a path around here somewhere."

Frisk nodded and stumbled in the dark. But as they did, they only found a dead end and an echo flower. Before either of you could say anything, it said, "BEHIND YOU!"

Frisk whipped around as the cave began to light up, and stood face to face with Captain Undyne.

"Seven." She growled.

Frisk took a defensive stance, clutching their stick tightly.

"Seven human souls are what we need to break the barrier," Undyne continued, "and seven human souls until Asgore becomes a god."

You were surprised. Dad would never hurt a fly. Why did he want to become a god? It sounded a little too close to what you had been going for with your plan.

"Six," Undyne added, while she clomped ever closer to your friend, "six human souls are what we currently have. Do you understand what that means?"

Frisk nodded, and went to speak, but was silenced as Monster Kid came bursting from some grass you hadn't seen.

"Frisk, dude! You got front row seats to Undyne's fight!" He shouted in excitement, "Undyne, let me help you!"

Undyne and Frisk were both flabbergasted, staring at Monster Kid in bewilderment. You laughed, despite how tense this moment was supposed to be. Even worse, when Monster kid asked, "Wait…who is Undyne fighting?" And was subsequently dragged away by the ear from the fight by the captain, you were on the ground in hysterics. Who would think the kid would save your…well, Frisk's skin?

You shook your head, "Frisk, let's get out of here while she's busy."

Frisk nodded and ran up a grassy path you had missed in the dark. They waded through some more water, and began to cross a rather rickety bridge that you knew would take you both to Hotland.

"YO!" Came a voice from behind you. You groaned, but Frisk paused and turned around.

"So…" Monster Kid said, not able to look Frisk in the eye, "You're the human huh?"

Frisk gave a sad nod.

"That…that means you're the enemy to all of us. Undyne says we're adversaries." Monster Kid clearly was not convinced of what he said, from the sound of his voice and the look on his face.

Frisk sighed. "I don't want to be."

"Come on," the kid replied, "don't do that. Say something mean so I can hate you."

Frisk's face scrunched up. You hadn't seen them make that look since they tried Papyrus' spaghetti.

"Um…" Frisk struggled, "you're a fart-face."

Monster Kid just laughed. "My sister calls me that all the time. Here, I'll try," he cleared his throat, "I…I hate your stinking guts."

Frisk looked sad and you felt same dormant rage from when you were in the flower patch bubble up in your stomach. You had this incredible urge to punch the Kid for hurting Frisk, but Monster Kid was sad too. Your feeling had vanished at their face, and they said, "I'm such a turd…I'm going home."

He turned to leave, but he tripped once again and nearly fell off the bridge.

"Help!" He cried, struggling to hold on to the ledge with his chin. As he did, Undyne appeared at the other end of the bridge, a spear pointing at Frisk.

Frisk gasped, not worried about Undyne, and ran over to Monster Kid to help them up. They struggled to pull Monster Kid up onto the bridge as Undyne loomed menacingly.

"Frisk, look out!" You yelled, but Undyne halted at the sight of Monster Kid standing in front of Frisk.

"H-hey!" Monster Kid shouted. You were surprised to see him standing up to his hero, "You want to hurt my friend, you're going to have to go through me!"

Undyne paused, before turning and walking away.

"Thanks, man." Frisk whispered, smiling.

Monster Kid just laughed it off. "That was scary. My parents are going to kill me though. See you later dude!"

He took off, safely this time, and you looked at Frisk. "Undyne could have killed you."

Frisk shrugged. "If I have to RESET, I'll be okay. Monster Kid wouldn't be so lucky."

You smiled to them. "You're really kind, Frisk."

You both came to the arch that separated Hotland from Waterfall. "Uh oh," You muttered, as you saw a figure standing on top of it.

Frisk saw it as well, and frowned. Undyne was waiting.

"Human!" The captain shouted, "The time has come for you to meet your end. But first, as custom dictates, I will tell you the tale of our people."

"Didn't we already read that?" Frisk whispered to you, and you chuckled a bit while nodding.

"Long ago…" Undyne began, but paused. "No, you know what? SCREW THAT! NGAAAAAAHHH!"

"Wh-what's she doing?!" Frisk questioned.

The Captain lept down from the arch and said, "Why should I bother telling you all that, when you're about to die?!"

The wind was howling, and a SAVE point appeared at Frisk's feet. They touched it and braced themselves, before stating calmly, "Undyne, we don't have to do this."

"Cut the goody two-shoes act." She snarled, and you were sucked into battle. With a swipe of her spear, Frisk was glowing a green color, and they had a spear in their hands as well. "You can't flee when you're green."

Magic spears came flying at Frisk. Clumsily, they blocked them with the magic spear, which created a small shield in front of them.

"Chara, I can't move," Frisk whispered, "just…turn and block."

"I'll keep an eye out for you," you assured them. You had never experienced green magic before, so the whole thing was new to you. But Frisk was counting on you!

The battle went on. Spears began flying at Frisk, and you cried out, "left," "right," and,"behind you." All the while, Frisk begged Undyne that they didn't want to fight like this. Undyne was not moved by this like Papyrus and Toriel were. "She's suplexing a boulder because she can!" You shouted, frustrated, "I don't think anything will get through to her."

Frisk began to become exhausted, and spears began to strike them. "Frisk, be careful!" You pleaded.

But soon, there were spears that would come from the left, flip over Frisk and hit them from the right. It was too much, and spears struck Frisk through the chest.

"No!" You yelled, as you could see their soul shatter inside them.

You briefly panicked, but in a split second, the RESET occurred, and Frisk was back to the beginning of the fight, good as new.

""I'll never get used to that." Frisk mumbled to you.

"Just breathe and stay calm," you advised them, "she's using the same order as she was last time. You can do it."

So Frisk tried again. They lasted through a barrage of spears, and Undyne just became more and more frustrated, and the attacks got faster and faster. Exhaustion set in on Frisk eventually, and they died again, throwing both of you back to the beginning of the fight.

"We need to try something else," you said, sensing Frisk's growing frustration and despair.

"I know, but I can't move when I'm green," Frisk replied, exhausted, while Undyne posed dramatically.

"Try taunting her," you suggested, "if you say this blocking is too easy maybe she'll switch to one of those spear attacks she chased you down with."

Frisk blocked the third rotation of spears and stuttered, "That was totally lame."

Undyne got angry at this made a throat-slitting motion with her fingers.

"You're REALLY not good at saying mean things, are you?" You asked, slapping your forehead.

"Do…do you want to take over for me on that?" Frisk asked, and added, "Please don't hurt her."

You were surprised. Frisk wanted you to take control during a battle? That never happened. "Oh…well. Sure thing, Frisk."

You snapped into the driver's seat and blocked the rotation of spears. You had memorized most of them by now, which was much easier to do when you weren't the one blocking. You unleashed a huge yawn.

"Come on, I thought you were the Captain of the Royal Guard?" You shouted haughtily, feeling weird to hear your words come out of Frisk's mouth.

Undyne threw a slightly different pattern of spears at you from what you remembered. You blocked most of them except one at the end. You could hear Frisk's voice yell out for you in their head, telling you to be careful and asking if you were okay. Their concern just made you feel even more determined.

"Oh was that a spear? I thought those were supposed to hurt." You said, dryly. "I think it just nicked me, I don't even need a band-aid."

Undyne made a very…odd, angry noise and the attacks got faster. Thankfully, Frisk called out the ones from behind you so you were able to block them all.

"Maybe when it comes to fighting you're a real…" You grimaced at the bad joke you were about to make, "fish out of water." Frisk was cracking up in their head, so you were glad at least they liked it.

"NGAAAAAH!" Undyne shouted. With a swipe of her spear, the green magic was gone, and lobbies of spears came flying from all directions now, forcing you to dodge.

"You're the quick one Frisk, you want to take it from here?" You asked, and they didn't answer before snapping control of their body, running towards Undyne, sliding under her legs, and dashing down the hallway to Hotland. "Wow. Don't need to be a show-off," you added as you floated along after them.

Frisk snuck the smallest grin to you as they made a mad dash over the river to Hotland. Once they turned at the neon sign, they paused slightly at the intense heat coming from down the hallway. You looked behind them. "Don't stop now," you quipped, "she's coming!"

And indeed, the captain was clomping after Frisk, having a hard time keeping up in the heavy armor. "YOU WON'T GET AWAY!" She yelled, despite the heat clearly making it hard for a fish-lady to run in.

Frisk sprinted down the hallway, and their phone rang. They dug into their pocket. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" You yelled, "LET IT GO TO VOICEMAIL!"

"Papyrus, now isn't the best time!" Frisk panted into the receiver, somehow still keeping their polite tone.

"OH, SORRY HUMAN. I WAS JUST THINKING THAT YOU, ME, AND UNDYNE SHOULD ALL HANG OUT TOGETHER SOON!"

Frisk sighed and shoved the phone back in their pocket. They ran into Hotland and did a double-take at the sentry station – manned by a sleeping Sans. Undyne was right behind them, but she also stopped and stared at Sans for a moment, allowing the two of you to make it over a bridge.

Frisk was beginning to wear down when you both heard a crash. They stopped and gasped as they saw Undyne had collapsed from dehydration.

"Frisk, come on, we need to get away while she's down!" You urged.

Frisk didn't budge. However, they glanced over to a water cooler a few feet away. "Chara, I can't leave her like this, she could die."

They were right, and you knew it, but you were still surprised. "Frisk, she killed you like…six times."

Frisk bit their lip as they filled a cup of water. "She just wants to save the monsters. I'm sure in her position you would do some drastic things to do the same."

Ugh. Frisk had just accidentally given you the worst guilt trip you've ever had. Still, you admired them. To be that compassionate and forgiving? You would have never expected that from anyone, much less a human, but Frisk was special. "You're amazing, Frisk," You tell them, softly.

Frisk blushed a little and smiled at you as she dumped the water on top of Undyne.

The captain of the guard groaned and stood up. She looked around and was able to quickly piece together what had happened, especially when she saw the empty cup of water in Frisk's hand.

Wordlessly, she walked away, her clomping steps much less intense than before.

"How did you know that would work?" You asked.

"Hm? Oh, I didn't," Frisk said, beaming.

You blinked. "Amazing and really lucky, Frisk."

"Oh, only lucky to have such a beautiful ghost to hang out with down here," Frisk snapped back with a wink. You blushed furiously, again, even worse in this heat, as Frisk sashayed down the bridge back to Waterfall.

"W-where are we going?" You ask, desperate to regain composure.

Frisk giggled. "Didn't you hear Papyrus? We're gonna go hang out with Undyne."

You raised an eyebrow. "You uh, might want to SAVE a time or two before we do that. Seems like a dangerous idea."

Frisk nodded as they backtracked through Waterfall, lighting lanterns on their way to the snail farm. "Well, I figure Undyne is a bit like you, Chara."

You cocked your head to the side, "Are you saying I smell like sushi, Frisk?"

"No, silly," Frisk laughed, "I mean you both want to act all tough and mean when I first met you. But as soon as I showed Undyne some kindness she backed down."

You rubbed your arm uncomfortably as you looked at the snail farm, "Yeah…I was kind of a jerk and I never really apologized for it."

Frisk just gave you their smile, that one smile which made your insides get that weird, twisty feeling. "You don't have to say it Chara. You made up for it by being such a great…friend."

Man, Frisk really knew how to make you feel like the most important person in the room.

Frisk found Undyne's house and went to call Papyrus, but it turned out he was already there waiting.

"HUMAN!" Papyrus greeted with his usual enthusiasm for life. "I HAVE A PLAN TO MAKE YOU AND UNDYNE GOOD FRIENDS!"

Frisk gave him two thumbs up, "I'm all ears, Pap."

Papyrus squinted. "NOT TRUE, YOU HAVE EYES, A NOSE, A MOUTH, AND VERY PINCHABLE CHEEKS. ANYWAY! UNDYNE AND I HAVE BECOME VERY CLOSE BECAUSE OF MY COOKING LESSONS! SO I THOUGHT THE BEST WAY TO GET YOU BOTH TO BE FRIENDS WOULD BE FOR YOU TO JOIN!" Papyrus handed a bone to Frisk as well, "AND MAKE SURE YOU GIVE HER THIS, SHE LOVES THESE."

Frisk looked a bit hesitant with the plan, but Papyrus was already pounding on the door. You and Frisk both were shocked to see Undyne answer in a tank top and jeans, but you guessed it made sense she wouldn't cook in her big, bulky armor.

"Hey Papyrus," Undyne greeted, "ready for your private, one on one, cooking lesson."

"I already have a great feeling about this," you muttered to Frisk dryly. They gave you a tiny smirk.

"OF COURSE, UNDYNE! I HOPE YOU DON'T MIND, I BROUGHT MY FRIEND!"

Without warning, Papyrus scooped Frisk up and held them out to Undyne. "TA-DAH!" The skeleton shouted.

You could see the rage and confusion flit across Undyne's face, which would be comical when paired with the look of bewilderment on Frisk's face if you weren't terrified she was going to put a spear through Frisk. She kept her composure though and grumbled, "Why don't you both come in?!"

Papyrus stepped in and plopped Frisk down. Dumbfounded, Frisk handed Undyne the bone, and Papyrus added, "OH YES, MY WONDERFUL FRIEND BROUGHT YOU THAT GIFT OF THEIR OWN ACCORD WITH NO INFLUENCE FROM ANYONE WHATSOEVER."

Undyne barely noticed the bone and shoved it into a drawer…filled with other bones just like it. "Uh, yeah. Whatever."

"I think she really likes it, Frisk," you say, dryly. You were really worried about your partner, but being really bad at handling emotions, you resorted to sarcasm.

"You um," Frisk said, scrambling to process what had all happened in the last minute since Papyrus placed them into the home, "have a lovely house Undyne. I like that its shaped like your head."

"OH MY, WOULD YOU LOOK AT THE TIME!" Papyrus exclaimed, looking down at this glove which obviously did not have a watch on it, "I NEED TO USE THE BATHROOM." He then did a running dive out of Undyne's window - closed window - which would have surprised you if it was anyone else besides Papyrus.

Frisk, shocked ran over to the window to check on their friend, but couldn't see him anywhere.

"Huh," Undyne replied, "he usually sticks that landing."

Frisk turned around and looked at you. You shrugged and said, "I don't really know what you were expecting, but this cant be terribly far off from it."

"So why are you here, kid?" Undyne asked, "Here to rub your victory in my face?"

Frisk shook their head, "I just wanted to clear the air between us, you know? No hard feelings?"

Undyne looked angry. "You think I'd ever actually be friends with you? You're person in the way of everyone's hopes and dreams. You're better off dead."

You were pretty enraged at these words. You stood by Frisk and grabbed their shoulder. "Don't listen to her," you hissed.

Before Frisk could respond to you or the captain, Papyrus poked his head in from the window.

"DRAT!" He cursed, "AND HERE I THOUGHT UNDYNE WOULD BE UP TO THE CHALLENGE OF BEING YOUR FRIEND. BUT IT WAS CLEAR I OVERESTIMATED HER. SHE JUST ISN'T UP TO IT. NYEH HEH HEH!"

Papyrus skipped off as a furious Undyne stormed over to the window. "NOT UP TO THE CHALLENGE!?"

Undyne whipped around at Frisk and pointed, menacingly. "YOU!"

Frisk pointed to themselves. "Me?"

"We're going to be best friends! Besties! BFFs!" Undyne yelled, "THEN I'LL SHOW PAPYRUS WHOSE BOSS! And when we're best friends, I'll be all you'll ever be thinking about! It's the perfect revenge."

"…how?" You wondered aloud, "that's not revenge at all."

"Sit down, I'll get you something to drink!" Undyne demanded. Frisk, wisely, heeded the request and took a seat. You floated over to the kitchen and watched Undyne lay out all the different drinks she had. She made disgusted faces at literally all of them except the tea. You recognized Dad's favorite kind of tea; golden flower. You became a little homesick.

"So what do you want?" Undyne asked.

Frisk went to get up, but Undyne chucked a spear at them, causing you to both to jump. The spear smashed the table, narrowly missing Frisk's chest.

"DON'T GET UP, YOU'RE MY GUEST!" Undyne shouted, angrily. Calming down, she added, "Uh…why don't you point at what you want with the spear."

"Go for the Golden Flower Tea," You advised, but Frisk had a sly grin that was spreading across their face. "Uh oh…"

Frisk pointed the spear to Undyne, wriggled their eyebrows and made a clicking noise with their mouth.

"Are you…hitting on me?" Undyne asked, appalled and confused.

"Frisk, why?" You groaned.

Frisk laughed, "Just kidding around with you Undyne. I've had my eye on a different cutie whose been hanging around me lately." Frisk then pointed to the tea.

Undyne, still a bit creeped out with the choice, went over and brewed the tea. You were surprised, but Undyne opened up to Frisk as they drank; about her time training with Asgore, and how Frisk and Asgore were so alike. You hadn't thought about it, but she was right; Frisk was just as gentle as Dad, maybe even more so. For a second, you considered knitting Frisk a sweater if you ever got your body back, like you had with dad. You brushed the thought away; that's embarrassing.

"So I mean, I couldn't let Papyrus into the guard," Undyne rambled, "he's too nice!"

Frisk nodded as Undyne's eyes widened. "Wait a minute. He's not here for his cooking lesson."

Frisk jumped as Undyne slammed her fists on the broken table, making it collapse even further. "NOTHING HAS BROUGHT PAPYRUS AND I CLOSER TOGETHER! I'LL TEACH YOU TO COOK AND WE'LL BE BESTIES FOR SURE."

She lept over the table, scooped up Frisk and jumped over to her counter. Throwing all the drinks on the floor, she pounded the countertop until vegetables fell out of the cupboard.

"NOW CRUSH THESE VEGETABLES LIKE YOUR WORST ENEMY!" She demanded to Frisk. Frisk, confused punched a tomato, knocking it over.

"YEAH! I'M INTO IT!" Undyne screamed, pounding the vegetables into oblivion with her fists, "We can scrape these into a bowl later. Now put the noodles into the pan here!"

Frisk looked at the large box of noodles. "How many do we need for the two of us?"

"ALL OF THEM!" Undyne yelled, throwing the entire box – and the box itself – into the pan.

"O-oh, okay," Frisk stammered.

"Stir the noodles!" Undyne ordered eagerly.

Frisk began stirring, but I pointed out, "there isn't even any water in the pot, why are you stirring?"

Frisk was going to ask Undyne the same thing, but she just barked, "Stir faster! You know what, I got this!"

Frisk fell backwards as spears rained down from the heavens, destroying the spaghetti pot and sending dry noodles all over the place.

"NOW' LET'S TURN UP THE HEAT!" Undyne cried, cranking the heat up on the stove all the way.

"There's still no water," you repeat, alarmed this time. Soon, the spaghetti was on fire, and it spread to the rest of the house.

"Hmm," Undyne said, looking around, "no wonder Papyrus sucks at cooking." She sighed and looked at Frisk sadly, "Kid, this was a disaster. I don't think you and I could ever be friends."

Frisk frowned. "Sure we can. I'm having a great time."Somehow, despite everything, they meant it and you were amazed.

"Nope!" Undyne replied, grinning, "just means I'll have to kill you!"

A battle began and you were sucked in with Frisk. "She's giving you the first move, Frisk," you advised, "Better make it quick, this place is burning down."

Frisk looked around, and pretended to hit Undyne with all their might. Really though, you could tell they probably punched that tomato harder.

"You…you have no will to fight me, do you?" Undyne asked. Frisk shook their head. "Ugh. Come on kid, let's get out of here."

The three of you left the house just in time. Undyne looked at Frisk and sighed, "You know, you are like Asgore. You're a big softie. I'm sure if you talk to him he'll let you through the barrier. Good luck out there, kid. I'll be with Papyrus if you need anything. Maybe…" Undyne smiled at them, "you aren't so bad after all.'

Undyne sprinted away. As they did, Grillby walked up to the house and looked at Frisk. Then he went in.

"I think he said, 'only fire lives here now.'" You informed your confused friend.

"So," Frisk said, looking at you, "I mean that went alright."

You threw your hands up in the air, "I guess! I mean I liked your date with Papyrus better."

Frisk eyed you suspiciously, "I'm starting to think you're just a tiny bit jealous, Chara."

Your face went red. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Frisk laughed and began trekking back to Hotland, "You're adorable, Chara. But hey, I wanted to ask you about something. How did you grab my shoulder?"

You raised an eyebrow at them. "What?"

"You didn't notice?" They asked, "When Undyne said…well, when she was being kind of mean, you got mad and grabbed my shoulder. I could feel your hand!"

You were stunned, as you hadn't even noticed at the time, but that had happened. "Oh. I'm not sure." You reached over and tried to grab Frisk's shoulder again, but your hand just went right through.

Frisk frowned. "Hmm. Well, how did you do it the first time?"

You hesitated, you didn't need to give Frisk more ammo for flirting, but you sighed and told them, "I was just really mad at Undyne for saying you were better off dead, and I didn't want you to think she was right."

Frisk blushed this time. "AWW!" They cooed, "Chara, you're the sweetest!"

Your face was burning, which was appropriate as you passed the sentry station at the beginning of Hotland. "Anyway," you said, desperate to change the subject, "the quickest way to the CORE is through some elevators up ahead, but it looks like they're blocked off by those Royal Guards."

Frisk walked up to the guards and asked, ""Excuse me, may I come through here?"

One of the guards, which you assumed was a bunny due to the ears, shook his head and said, "Sorry kid, captain's orders. There's a human running around we need to capture when they come by. Be on the look out, okay?"

Frisk blinked, nodded and backed away. "Well, okay then," they whipped out their cell phone and called Papyrus.

"YES HELLO HUMAN FRIEND! UNDYNE TOLD ME ALL ABOUT HOW YOU BURNT HER HOUSE DOWN! WHAT FUN JAPES AND SHENANIGANS!"

You rubbed your forehead and sighed, "Oh goodness…"

Frisk smirked at you and asked for Undyne, "Hey can you tell those guards to move? Huh? Oh…" Frisk's face fell a bit, "Well. Okay. We'll go through the lab. Thanks." Frisk frowned, "Undyne can't tell the guards to move. Says she needs to save face."

You groaned, "So through the lab over there, huh? Maybe we can find out about the skeleton scientist guy I vaguely remember."

Frisk shrugged and walked up to the lab. An automatic door slid open for them, revealing a very, very dark laboratory.

"Um…hello?" Frisk called out, wandering in, "Undyne said there would be an Alphys here? Hello?"

Your eyes tried to adjust to the dark, but it just seemed darker yet darker. You could vaguely see some sort of screen on the wall, but couldn't make out what was on it.

You and Frisk stumbled through the lab until finally some lights flicked on. As your eyes adjusted, you saw someone you definitely did not recognize. They were a lizard-like monster in a white lab coat. "Oh my God," she mumbled, "I didn't think you'd be here so soon."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude!" Frisk said politely, "I'm trying to get to the CORE so I can go home."

The lizard-scientist nodded. "Ah! Right. Let me introduce myself. I'm Dr. Alphys, the royal scientist."

Frisk glanced over at you and you shrugged. "Not the one I knew, sorry."

"To be honest with you, I was charged with capturing you by King Asgore," Alphys explained, "but after watching your journey throughout the underground, I can't help but root for you. So how about I help you through Hotland?"

Frisk breathed a sigh of relief, but the spiel sounded a little suspicious to you.

"So here's the thing though," Alphys added, nervously, "you m-may run into a bit of a problem."

Frisk raised an eyebrow. "What kind of problem?"

"Well, y-you see, I b-built this robot to be a television star, right? M-mettaton. Anyway, when Asgore said to c-capture your SOUL, I added some, ah.." Alphys paused and scratched the back of her head, "anti human c-combat features."

"Oh," Frisk replied, sounding worried.

"W-well remember, I changed my mind!" Alphys interjected, "A-and when I w-went to disable these features I m-may have…"

Frisk leaned in a bit, "May have what?"

Alphys looked to the floor. "M-may have turned them into a mindless killing machine by mistake."

"I don't know anything about robots," you mused, "but that's a really big mistake."

"O-oh." Frisk squeaked, "Okay." They regained their cheerful smile and added, "Well, I'm sure if you help guide me through Hotland I'll be fine!"

Alphys grinned back, "Yeah! Maybe you won't even run into him, he still has his shows to run."

As if on cue, there came a clanging from deep within the lab.

"Hm?" Alphys asked, "did you hear something?"

The lab clanged again, but louder.

"What was that?!" Frisk asked.

There came a clang from behind one of the walls of the lab.

"Oh no," Alphys groaned.

"OOOOHHHH YEEEEESSS," Came a digitized voice as a metal box on one wheel came crashing through the wall.

Frisk coughed and rubbed the dust from their eyes. "Um…h-hello robot! My name is Frisk!"

"WELCOME BEAUTIES AND GENTLE BEAUTIES!" Mettaton said, looking at a camera you hadn't realized was mounted to the wall, "And welcome back to the Mettaton quiz show!"

Confetti rained down from the ceiling.

"Why don't we all give a big welcome to our first contestant…" Mettaton pointed dramatically to Frisk, "THE HYYYYOOOOOOOMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAN!"

Frisk turned to the camera, smiled and waved. They turned back to the robot and asked excitedly, "What do I get it I win?!"

Mettaton wagged a large, gloved finger at your friend. "Oh ho ho…well, that's a surprise. But you know what happens if you get one wrong?"

Frisk shook their head, but you grimaced.

"You die!" Mettaton squealed.

"What?!" Alphys and Frisk cried.

You felt yourself get sucked into a battle with Frisk. You both looked at each other a bit squeamishly; it's been a long day.


	6. Quiz Shows and Spiders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You weren't sure what gave you more trouble, Mettaton or Frisk's flirting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Undertale belongs to Toby Fox

Music began pumping out of the robot's speakers, and the quiz show began.

"We'll start with an easy one! What's your reward for getting the questions right:

A - Mercy

B - More Questions

C - Murder

D - A Puppy"

Frisk hesitated at the, "puppy," answer, but you looked over and saw Alphys making a letter B with her hands.

"Alphys is signaling you the answers," You advised, "don't stare at her, it will be too obvious. Pick B."

Frisk didn't acknowledge you, but listened and picked B.

"There you go darling, you're getting the hang of this!" Mettaton whirred with excitement. "Here's your prize: What is the king's full name?

A - Lord Fluffybuns

B - Fuzzy Pushover

C - Asgore Dreemurr

D - W.D. Gaster"

You did a double take at the last name and the buttons in front of Frisk read, "D) Dr. Friendship." But who was Gaster? It sounded familiar. But you saw Alphys signaling for C, so you whispered that to Frisk.

"Marvelous, what a terrific answer for the smart little human!" Mettaton mused.

"What's going on right now?!" Frisk yelled in confusion.

"Ah ha ha, screaming is against the rules, "Mettaton objected, "Enough about you, let's talk about me. What are robots made of?

A - Hopes & Dreams

B - Metal & Magic

C - Snips & Snails

D - Sugar & Spice"

You didn't even need to tell Frisk that Alphy was signaling , "B," to them as they hit the B button displayed in front of them.

"Well this is just too easy for you, dearie!" Mettaton sounded absolutely enthused with how the quiz show was going. You floated a bit closer.

"I don't think any attacks would hurt that metal body, seems pretty sturdy," you advised Frisk, "not that you're one for violence anyway."

"Here's another easy one for you," Mettaton began, but then rattled off a complicated math problem about trains, and gave four numerical answers that were only slightly different. You snickered at the deer-in-the-headlights face Frisk made and looked at Alphys to see her signaling, "D."

"It's D," you told Frisk, who hit that answer with a noticeable look of relief on their face.

"Wonderful! I'm astounded, folks!" Mettaton cried, "but don't count on your victory yet! How many flies are in this jar?"

Mettaton held out a tiny jar brimming with little insects. Frisk squinted at the jar, and you looked at Alphys and saw she was making an, "A," with her hands. Frisk hit the response as soon as you told them.

"My goodness darling, aren't you just the luckiest little child today!" Mettaton replied, a bit of frustration breaking through in his robotic voice.

"Let's play a memory game! What monster is this?!" Mettaton showed a picture of half of a Froggit's face on his screen:

A - Froggit

B - Whimsun

C - Moldsmal

D - Mettaton

Frisk immediately started to go for the, "A," prompt, but you saw Alphy signaling to them for D. "Alphys is saying D, Frisk."

Frisk tried to be smooth by pulling their hand back and rubbing their chin before hitting D.

"Well I'm so flattered you remembered my favorite shirt, beauty!" Mettaton snipped, pulling back the view on the screen to reveal an old picture of himself wearing a Froggit shirt. Frisk just chuckled nervously.

Mettaton pointed at Frisk dramatically and said, "But can you get this one?! Would you smooch a ghost?"

All the answers popped as, "heck yeah."

The slow smile spread across Frisk's face. They turned slightly and looked at you, and wriggled their eye brows to you. You turned red. Frisk winked, making your blush worse, before slamming one of the buttons and saying, "I'd love to!" Aphys gave them an…interesting look.

You covered your face in embarrassment. Frisk REALLY knew how to fluster you. "Frisk…" you groaned. They were just ecstatic.

"Great answer! I love it!" Mettaton shouted, excitedly. "Here's a simple one: How many letters are in Metattonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn…"

The robot kept droning on the n, making Frisk and yourself think he had glitched out, until you saw Alphy signaling, "C," for Frisk. You told Frisk and they picked the correct choice.

"Well of course that was easy for you!" Mettaton shouted, but you could tell they were getting a little frustrated with Frisk's lucky streak. "Time to break out the big guns! In the dating simulation game Mew Mew Kissy Cutie, what is Mew Mew's favorite food?"

What was embarrassing was that you knew the answer to that because of how much anime had washed up into the dump, and you and Asriel had watched all of it, but thankfully, Alphys embarrassed herself more by answering the question before Mettaton could even display the answers. Alphys rattled off the plot of the game faster than you could even comprehend before halting at the looks Frisk and Mettaton were giving her.

"Uh…" Alphys stammered, "n-nevermind."

"Why Alphys darling, if you're going to insist on helping our guest, why didn't you just say so?!" There was passive-aggressive tones dripping from the robot's voice as they asked, "Human, who does Dr. Alphys have a crush on?:

A - Undyne

B - Asgore

C - The human

D - I don't know."

You looked over at Alphy' work station and noticed a home made Undyne action figure and a picture of the two of them together. "I'm going to go out on a limb," You advised your partner, "and guess Undyne."

Frisk frowned though and looked at the look of pure embarrassment on Alphys' face, Mettaton clearly delighting in it. "I don't want to embarrass her like that on TV, Chara," they whispered to you.

Boldly, Frisk declared, "I mean, obviously it's me." Frisk followed it up with the double-finger-gun point at Alphys and a wink. The doctor just gave them an appalled look back.

You laughed and shook your head, "Frisk, you're too much sometimes."

"Oh how bold!" Mettaton cackled with glee, "I'm going to have to say that's wrong, but…I will say that she does watch you on that screen all the time, taking notes on your fights and experiences. And is that not infatuation in some form or other?" Mettaton let out a computerized sigh, "Well darling, if Alphys is helping you, there's no tension! Until next time, stay tuned!"

The robot's wheel retracted into their body, and was replaced by an exhaust pipe, blasting the creature away and out of the roof.

A moment of awkward silence passed before Alphys looked to Frisk and said, "Well, that was certainly something."

Frisk laughed. "Yeah, I've never been on TV before."

"Or probably been against a killer robot." You pointed out, and they stifled a laugh.

"Hey, so why don't you give me your phone number and I'll call you to help you out around Hotland? I'm sure Mettaton laid all kinds of traps for you."

Frisk nodded and handed their phone to the dinosaur. She gasped, "Oh my God this thing looks ancient. Give me a second."

She took the phone to the workbench and began to work on it. Frisk explored the lab while she did so. They giggled and whispered to you, "Hey Chara, check out what she has in the, 'human history,' section of her bookshelf."

You floated over and laughed. "Those are comics! I used to read those when they'd wash up here."

Frisk eyed you curiously. "Not…before you came here?"

Your face faltered for a minute. "N-no. I didn't do a lot of reading before I fell down here."

Frisk nodded, understandingly, and decided not to press the issue, causing you to sigh in relief. But you knew you couldn't keep dodging your past forever. You followed as Frisk took a peek inside the refrigerator of the good doctor. Frisk grabbed a weird package of something and held it up to you. "Babe, what's this say?" They asked.

You raised an eyebrow at the new pet name and blushed, but replied, "Instant Noodles. Not sure why they're in a fridge though. Bit odd." You gave a fake gasp as Frisk snuck the pack into their pocket, "Why Frisk! You devil! You're stealing food!"

Frisk held a finger up to their lips and shushed you. "She has a million of these and I feel like I haven't eaten in forever."

You chuckled, and saw Alphys approaching. You made a head gesture to Frisk to let them know.

"Alright, so, here's the new phone!" The doctor handed it to Frisk, bursting with excitement. "It's got a keychain, texting, and all sorts of apps. And I signed you upfor the Undernet, the Underground's premier social networking site!"

"Neat," Frisk smiled politely, but you could tell they weren't really too concerned with any of that.

"O-okay, well I'll call you when you get to something really difficult in Hotland."

Frisk nodded. For some reason, this made Alphys nervous, and she muttered, "I uh…I have to go use the bathroom. B-bye!"

"Wait!" Frisk called. Alphys stopped and turned, and Frisk continued, "Theoretically, could I smooch a ghost?"

You blushed as Alphys stuttered a nervous answer, "That's a uh, good question Frisk. I'm not sure."

"But can you look into it?" Frisk asked, dead serious.

Alphys scratched the side of her head, "Well, okay Frisk, I'll see if I can find the time to look into the topic." She turned and went back to the bathroom.

Frisk just looked at you, winked, and said, "Soon." You hid your face in your hands again.

Frisk chuckled and left the lab. They took out the instant noodles and began eating them dry, chipping them away in chunks. "I thought I was the only one who did that!" You told them, smirking, "they taste better dry."

Frisk just smiled at you and mused, "We're just meant to be, Chara."

Your face burned into another bright red color. Frisk was really on a roll with the flirting. Doing your best to keep your cool, you replied, "You're awfully frisky today."

Frisk snorted in to their noodles and covered their mouth to hold in their giggle-fit. "Oh my God."

You smiled, feeling good to at least have fired something back.

Frisk's new phone dinged loudly. They pulled it out and clicked it a few times, furrowing their brow together, and asked you to read the things Alphys was posting on Undernet. "I don't think Alphys realized I can see the things she's posting about me. "

Frisk stepped onto one of the conveyor belts of Hotland and nearly fell over as they zoomed away. "Careful," you cautioned, floating alongside them, "they're faster than they look."

As soon as Frisk stumbled off the belt, they had a battle encounter with a Vulkin.

"As yes," you reminisced, "Vulkin's try to be really helpful, but they tend to be more of a pain when they do it. Really nice though."

Frisk nodded and danced around the fire attacks. "You're doing a great job! Keep it up!

The Vulkin gave a whopping cheer and ran off to tell its friends. Frisk rolled up their sleeves as they kept going down the path through Hotland. The phone in Frisk's pocket would make a, "ding," noise every couple of seconds.

"Are ALL of those Alphys?" You asked, a bit annoyed.

Frisk went over some of the steam vents, and checked their phone. They laughed and showed you the screen so you could read the posts, "She wants to call me to tell me how to get over the steam vents, but she's really nervous about it? She must be shy. Poor girl."

As if on cue, the phone rang. Frisk answered, "Hello?"

"H-hey to get over the g-gaps you j-just need to – oh, this is Dr. Alphys, by the way," the nervous doctor said, loudly, through the phone, "j-just use the steam vents."

You rolled your eyes, but Frisk glared at you. "I already figured that one Alphys, but thank you!"

Alphys got embarrassed and hung up. Frisk shot you another look. "Don't be so hard on her Chara. People deal with their emotions in different ways." Their expression softened a bit, and they took on a more teasing tone, "Not everyone just is a grump about them like you."

You had to admit, they had a point. Being shy was probably a better way to deal with your problems than killing yourself and trying to goad your brother into helping you kill your village. You took a deep breath and apologized, "You're right Frisk. I'm sorry."

Frisk beamed. "Aw! You never say that! Good progress, Chara."

You sighed, "Don't rub it in Frisk."

Frisk continued solving puzzles with the help of the royal scientist. To her credit, she did call in with more useful information, explained to Frisk how orange magic and lasers functioned, and disabling a few traps that involved lights and lasers.

After a rather confusing steam vent puzzle, Frisk laughed and ran up to a sentry station, manned, of course, by none other than Sans.

"hey kiddo," Sans called, "want to by a hot dog? only 30g."

Frisk dug in their pocket while nodding, and placed the gold on the table. Sans handed them the hot dog and said, "okay, here's your 'dog. 'dog, yes. apostrophe dog. short for hot dog. wanna 'nother?"

Frisk nodded, and Sans plopped the 'dog on Frisk's head. Frisk giggled and held still. "More!"

This continued until somehow, Frisk had twenty nine hot dogs on their head, perfectly balanced.

"okay kiddo, i'm going to have to stop you there." Sans said, "twenty-nine is the limit. you think i could get a thirtieth one up there? get on going."

Frisk turned to leave, and a mountain of hot dogs came raining down from the sky, causing the monsters around the stand to laugh. Frisk did too, and you smiled at them. They really could win anyone over.

After solving some more steam-vent puzzles and some arcade-style block shooter, you and Frisk wandered into a darkened room. Their phone buzzed, and Frisk answered, "Hey Al."

"Hey Frisk. its pitch dark in there, let me get a light on for you."

Blinding lights kicked on, and you could hear Alphy mutter, "Oh no," into the phone.

"OOOHHHH YES!" Came a robotic voice from in the room.

"Oh crap," you and Frisk muttered at the same time.

You found yourselves in a large, clean kitchen stage with lights, cameras, and Mettaton approaching with a chef's hat on. Mettaton grabbed Frisk by the hand and dragged them over to the counter.

"Welcome, beauties and gentle-beauties to…COOKING WITH A KILLER ROBOT! Today, my lovely assistant will be…" Mettaton paused and made a dramatic gesture towards Frisk.

"Hi, I'm Fri-" Frisk began but was cut off by Mettaton screeching, "THE HUMAN!" To the camera and continuing.

"Today we will be making a very special cake. If my lovely assistant could, please grab milk, eggs, and sugar from the counter behind me!" Mettaton ordered.

Frisk nodded and grabbed the items as instructed. "Frisk, be careful," you warned them, "I have a really bad feeling about this."

Frisk placed the items on the counter and waved at the camera. You had a feeling they weren't quite grasping the situation.

"Wonderful! You're a natural, darling," Mettaton encouraged, "And now, the last ingredient in our recipe calls for one farm-fresh and organic HUMAN SOUL!"

"What?!" Frisk blurted out, backing away as Mettaton pulled out a chainsaw and began approaching your partner. Fruitlessly, you stood between the two of them, grimacing. Thankfully, the phone rang, this time it was Mettaton's. They pulled out a cell phone similar to Frisk's and answered.

"Kind of in the middle of a thing here," Mettaton answered, impatiently.

You heard Alphys on the other end, "Hey, w-what if there was a substitution in the recipe?"

"What?! Why?" Mettaton questioned.

"What if someone's…v-vegan?"

You looked at the eggs and milk on the table. "Um…"

"Vegan," Mettaton spat angrily.

But before Alphys could answer, Mettaton hung up and enthusiastically yelled, "WHAT A WONDERFUL IDEA! Lucky for all the VEGANS out there, I have a can of MTT Brand Human Soul Flavored Substitute, made with real substitute!"

"What's real substitute?" Frisk asked you, but you shrugged.

"If my lovely assistant could go grab the can on the counter over there, I would love it!" Mettaton hinted aggressively. Frisk walked over to a counter on the far end of the room, but with a rumble, the counter sprang from the floor and rose high above the studio.

"Oooooh tough break darling," Mettaton teased, "If you can't grab that soon, we'll have to go back to the original recipe."

Frisk's phone rang immediately, and they didn't even have to answer before Alphy told them, "There's a feature on your phone that can get you up there! Hit the yellow button for the one-time use jetpack I installed."

"What." You said, flatly, "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

Frisk hit the yellow button on the phone though, and the device strapped itself to Frisk's back, sprouted some exhaust pipes, and flew Frisk up to the top of the counter. Frustrated, Mettaton threw the eggs and milk at Frisk, but to no avail. Frisk snatched the can and flew down. The look on their face, both exhilarated from flying and baffled as to what just happened, was priceless.

"Here you go, Mettaton!" Frisk said, cheerfully, before waving at the camera once again.

Mettaton gave an annoyed sigh. "Haven't you ever seen a cooking show? The whole thing was made in advance." They plopped a cake on the table and flew off in a rage.

"Huh," You said, looking at the rectangular shaped hole in the ceiling, "TV in the underground has changed a bit."

You turned to see Frisk eating a handful of cake. "I was still hungry." You snorted with laughter, but Frisk held a handful out to you and offered, "The frosting is chocolate. Want to take control for some?"

You beamed and gratefully shared some cake with Frisk. Once you were both quite satisfied, you continued back through Hotland. "Thanks Frisk," you told them, remembering your manners for once.

"Anything to see that gorgeous face of yours light up," They replied, winking. Your face burned once more.

As they hopped on another of Hotland's elevators, a small fire monster told them to remember the name, "Heats Flamesman." Frisk gave them a thumbs up.

Frisk began to fan themself off, "how much longer to the CORE, Chara?"

You tried your best to remember, despite how long it had been, "I'm going to say half way there. You need to stop and take a break? Don't dehydrate yourself."

Frisk gave you a small smile. "I'm okay, thanks."

"Excuse me!" Called a voice from behind you. You both turned to see the Royal Guards approaching. "We need you to evacuate the area! There have been sightings of a small human with a striped shirt. We're going to need you to come with us," the bunny-eared guard commanded.

Frisk, silently began following them, willing to go along with the charade, but the dragon-guard stopped and looked at your friend more closely. "…hey bro…I think this is the human."

The bunny-guard got all kinds of flustered, "AH! You're right! It is the human, we totally have to kill him. Ugh, if you weren't here I would have messed this all up."

The dragon guard shook his head. "No…you wouldn't have."

The bunny-guard sighed. "Yeah I would. I'm nothing without you."

"…What?"

"I-I mean you're so smart dude! Haha!"

"That's not what you said," Frisk interrupted, "You said you're nothing without your boyfriend."

Dragon-guard looked at bunny-guard, who was flipping out at what Frisk had said. "W-what are you talking about kid?! I never said that. T-this is my bro! N-not like MY bro like that, and we aren't brothers but…"

You shook your head at how flustered he was, "That's really obvious."

Frisk crossed their arms. "I think you should be honest with your feelings."

"What…are they talking about?" Dragon-guard asked, confused.

"I guess it's obvious to everyone but the two of them," you replied.

"Isn't it always?" Frisk whispered to you.

"D-dude I….I…" Bunny-guard was struggling, but looked at Frisk who game them a very supportive thumbs up, "I like, LIKE you dude! I like the way you hold your sword, I like the way your armor looks on you. I just want to be with you all the time."

There was an awkward silence that hung in the air.

"01," the dragon-guard said after a few moments, "you…want to go get some Nice Cream?"

"Haha, yeah dude!" The bunny guard replied, and the two walked off.

"Frisk you must have some sort of cheering-up super power," You laughed, "you manage to make everyone you run into happy."

Frisk looked at you, and to your surprise, they frowned a bit and continued down the road.

"Hey, what's the matter?" You ask, floating after them, "I can't believe that didn't get a flirt or something from you."

Frisk rubbed their arm and glanced at you. "You know how you don't like to talk about your past and get kind of moody about it?" Frisk asked you that with a shaky voice. You hadn't seen them like this since they were back at Home. You nodded. "It's kind of like that. Just bad memories," Frisk gave you a weak smile as you both approached some more block-shooting puzzles.

You nodded as Frisk turned to solve it. "I understand," you assured softly, "well, you don't have to tell me about it. You can if you want, but I know I haven't been exactly open about all my stuff either. You only get one shot with these, by the way," you nodded to the ammo part of the screen.

Frisk gave you their sad smile that made you want to reach out and hug them (where the heck did these feelings even come from), and said, "Thanks, Chara."

The moment the two of you were having was interrupted by the sound of Frisk's phone.

"Hey Alphys!" Frisk sang out, hiding their sadness well. "Hmm? Um yeah, I could be up for watching some anime with you later," Frisk shrugged at you from the unexpected question, and then put the call on speaker phone.

"Oh it's this great show called Mew Mew Kissy Cutie and this girl called Mew Mew controls people by kissing them and…"

Frisk took the call off speaker phone as you laughed, "I've seen that one," you tell them, "it washed down here when I was still alive, I watched it with…"

You froze up and covered your mouth. Frisk finished up the call with Alphys and shook their head. "It's okay, you don't have to tell me. We're both being kind of secretive today."

Frisk solved another block puzzle and you sighed, "I don't LIKE keeping things from you Frisk. I hope you don't think that's what it is."

Frisk gave a melancholic laugh, "I know Chara. Like I said, I'm doing the same thing." They looked around a twisting room with various conveyor belts and steam vents.

"GOOD EVENING BEAUTIES AND GENTLE-BEAUTIES!"

You both groaned. Now was really not the time. Mettaton hovered high above you, and a camera was pointing down at Frisk.

"We're joining our live investigative reporter here on the Hotland path to bring you tonight's exciting news!"

Frisk looked around. "He means me, doesn't he?"

You nodded. "Yup. You're a journalist now. Congratulations."

"Well journalist, better find something to report on!" Mettaton commands.

Frisk put on their game face, waved at the camera (again), and looked around the room. There were some rather odd objects all around the room; a basketball, a glass of water, a book, a video game, but of course Frisk went right for…

"A PUPPY!" Frisk screamed, running over to the small, white dog, petting it.

"Isn't that the puppy who stole Papyrus' special attack?" You wondered.

Frisk shrugged and continued to pet the dog cheerfully. They turned to Mettaton and shouted, "Can I report on this dog?! It's soo cute!"

Mettaton shrugged. "I can see the headline now! Somewhere, a dog exists. Frankly, I'm blown away."

You glared at the robot, but Frisk rolled their eyes and continued to pet the dog. Suddenly though, a flame ignited on the dog's tail, and it began ticking.

"What?!" You and Frisk shouted at the same time.

"Oh, what a scoop!" Mettaton squealed, "the dogs a bomb! And that basketballs a bomb! And that book! Everything in this room is a bomb! And if you can't detonate these bombs in two minutes, that big bomb over there," Mettaton pointed at what looked like a boiler at the back of the room, "Will take out this whooooole room."

Alphys called Frisk and advised, quickly, "defusing the bombs is easy, there's just a switch on the back!"

Frisk looked down at the dog snoozing beside them, and flicked a small switch on its back. Frisk went running off after the basketball, and defused it. They caught a few of the other rigged items on a few conveyor belts scattered across the room.

Something felt off to you about the whole thing. "I don't think that's how bomb defusing words, but keep going Frisk. Better safe than sorry."

Frisk charged around the room, hitting switches left and right, but couldn't catch the bomb that was…a glass of water.

"That is an extremely agile glass of water," you observe, trying to hide the panic in your voice as Frisk's timer went under thirty seconds.

Alphys called in, and said, as soon as Frisk answered, "I'll trap the water in a magnetic field in the middle of the room!"

As she hung up, you wondered aloud, "Are glasses of water magnetic?" Still, you saw that the water had stopped.

You also looked at the timer and noticed that it was now under ten seconds…but running extremely slow. Something was off. This whole thing was rigged, but somehow it seemed to be in Frisk's favor.

"Frisk!" You shout, dramatically, "Alphys stopped the extremely agile glass of water! Quickly, defuse the extremely agile glass of water."

Frisk probably would have chuckled if they weren't so focused, hitting the switch on the back of the glass.

"Well, well, well darling!" Mettaton shouted, "looks like you managed to defuse all my bombs under three minutes!"

"I thought I only had two…?" Frisk questioned, quietly.

"Something fishy is going on here, and it isn't Undyne." You whisper, "some of these traps are little suspicious."

"So now the bomb will go off in THREE SECONDS!" Mettaton gave an evil laugh.

"WHAT?!" You and Frisk both yelled. Frisk cowered and braced themself, and in a panic you threw yourself over them in a futile effort to shield them.

But no explosion came.

As soon as you realized you were holding on to Frisk, your arms went through them again like they usually would. "Huh?" You wondered.

Frisk looked at Mettaton questioningly. The robot made a sound as if it was clearing its throat, "AHEM!"

Suddenly, as if in response to his noise, his phone rang. "H-Hey! Um…It is I! Doctor Alphys! And I uh…I hacked the bomb! With my hacking skills! To stop you!"

"Curses, foiled again!" Mettaton shouted, but sounded more annoyed than angry or frustrated, and flew off in a huff.

"This doesn't feel right," you quip, "What do you think?"

"I think I liked feeling your body against me," Frisk replied with a wink. You groaned and blushed, but Frisk continued, "No, you're right though. Mettaton definitely said two minutes, and then changed it to three."

"And since when are bombs defused with light switches?" You laugh. "You think Alphys is in on this?"

Frisk shrugged as the two of you walked past a spider bake sale. A spider-girl monster you had never seen before was staring at Frisk intently. Frisk eyed a spider-donut, but backed away as soon as they saw the price tag – 9,999 gold. "Yikes," they muttered, and walked away. The spider-girl stared after them.

"Don't you still have the one from the Ruins?" You asked.

Frisk paused and dug in their pocket, pulling out the Spider Donut, "Ha, yeah," they brushed off some pocket lint and bit half of it off, pocketing the other half for later.

You chuckled, "gross, Frisk."

"Don't worry cutie, I'll brush my teeth before I kiss you."

You wondered how red your face could turn, because Frisk was really pushing those limits today. The two of you got onto the elevator.

"I wonder how it is that you can touch me sometimes." Frisk said, smiling at you hopefully, "because maybe that could help us figure something out."

You thought. "Well, the first time I was really mad, and the second time just now, I was really worried." You paused and thought back to the Ruins, "But earlier in the Ruins, when I got really upset with you I couldn't interact with anything. But I wasn't really focused on any one particular thing either."

Frisk gave a small, sad laugh, "probably a good thing at the time."

You frowned, "Yeah..."

"How did you do the thing where your eyes got all black and goopy looking?" Frisk asked, and they did so in a way that made it clear they had been wondering for awhile.

You shrugged, "couldn't tell you. The whole ghost thing doesn't exactly come with a manual. You looked really scared when I did it." Now it was your turn to laugh in a melancholic tone, "A mountain full of monsters, and I was the scary thing you found."

Frisk shook their head and went back to their reassuring smile that lit up whatever room they were in, "Hey now, you aren't scary, Chara. I was just taken by surprise with your ghost trick."

"Thanks, Frisk."

By now, you were both wandering down a hallway, and it was getting darker and darker.

"Hey, call the doc and see if she can turn the lights on," you suggest, "last thing you want to do is fall off the path into the lava."

Frisk gave you a concerned glance, "did that happen to you?"

You nodded, "Yeah, most painful RESET I've ever had."

Frisk dug in their pocket, but you both froze as you began hearing whispers from all around you.

"I hear humans hate spiders." One murmured.

"I hear they love to squish them," another tittered.

"I hear that humans like to rip the legs right off them."

You and Frisk glance at each other. "Be careful," you whisper.

However, something catches Frisk's leg and they hit the ground. "Ah!" They yelp, "I'm stuck."

And indeed, you leaned in to see that Frisk was wrapped up in a large, sticky spider web.

"I heard," came the voice the spider-girl, emerging from the shadows, "that they're awfully stingy with their money."

She approached Frisk with an angry look in her eyes. "You think you're too good for our spider-pastries? I think you'd make a fine part of them."

Frisk kept their composure, and you were amazed as they responded. "Not at all, miss. I actually bought a spider donut from the Ruins."

The spider glared. "The name is Muffet, dearie, and how do I know you're telling the truth?"

Frisk wriggled their hand free, and reached into their pocket, pulling out the remaining half of the Spider Donut, "It's pretty tasty!"

Muffet hesitated. "How do I know you didn't steal it? Where's your receipt?"

Frisk began to sweat, nervously, "T-they didn't give me one."

A sinister smile began to curl up Muffet's face. "Ooooooh cupcake!" She sang, "Time to plaaaaaaay."

From behind her, a gigantic cupcake-shaped creature emerged, towering over Frisk. Frisk shook with fear as the monster approached.

Muffet clapped her hands together, but turned around as a small spider tugged on her dress. "Hmm, what's this?"

However, the monster loomed over Frisk, mouth opened as Muffet looked over the paper. You went to step between the monster and Frisk, but Muffet snapped up and scolded, "Cupcake, down boy!"

The cupcake monster whimpered and backed off.

"Lucky you," Muffet sighed, untying Frisk, "the spiders from the Ruins just telegraphed me their sale records. Looks like I got a bit too excited there."

"I-it's okay." Frisk stammered out, but you could see they were a bit freaked out about being nearly eaten by a cupcake.

Frisk briskly walked out of there, you in tow, "Oh my God are you okay?" You asked.

Frisk took a deep sigh. "Spiders scare me, Chara, that was really hard."

You frowned. Asriel had always been a bit squeamish of spiders too, and you weren't overly fond of them yourself. "We're almost to the CORE, Frisk. Hotland's been a bit rough."

"That's okay," Frisk assures you, "I've had great company."

You smile and only get a pink tinge in your cheeks this time. You look up at the building in front of you and furrow your brow. "Hm. This is new."

Frisk looks at the bright, neon sign and tilts their head. "What's it say?"

"It's the MTT Mettaton Megaton Resort," you read, "but it looks like the way is through there. Shall we?"

"heya frisk," a familiar voice came from the side of the entrance. It's Sans, of course, beckoning over the child in the purple sweater. "you got a minute? i want to talk to you. come on, i know a shortcut."

Frisk waved excitedly and ran over. "Sure Sans!"

You both follow Sans down an alley. But at the dead-end, Sans emits an odd noise, teleporting Frisk and himself away. You felt that hazy, sluggish blackness creep over you. "Not again," you muttered before blacking out.


	7. Chapter 7: Acting and Lies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's nothing more familiar than the guilt of being a bad friend. 
> 
> Undertale belongs to Toby Fox

Once you came to and realized you were nowhere near Frisk, you got a little freaked out. After all, since death, you were either bound to your grave or with your new partner, but this time you found yourself in a pitch-black void. It was darker than anything you had ever seen before, and while you didn't typically fear the dark, this particular setting struck you as very off-putting.

"Frisk?!" You yelled out into the darkness.

But nobody came.

And they kept coming. You could feel nothingness yet presence all around you. It made your head hurt because the whole thing seemed incomprehensible.

"Whose there?" You screamed, ready to take the defensive.

In the darkness, a white face appeared to you. It looked familiar, but you couldn't put your finger on it. The face spoke in a dialect you couldn't understand.

"What?" You asked, "who are you?"

It kept rambling in gibberish. "I don't…I don't understand what you're saying."

You felt yourself being pulled back to reality, but as you were, something struck you. "Wait!" You exclaim, "You're Gaster, aren't you?!"

The face just smiled as you were pulled from the void, and plopped next to Frisk in a classy looking restaurant. Frisk tensed up a bit, realizing that you had rejoined them. They reached over and attempted to grab your hand, but could not. The effort was appreciated all the same.

"so i ask the old lady what's wrong," Sans says, in the middle of a story, "and she asks if i can promise her something. now i'm not usually one to make promises, but someone who likes bad jokes has a sincerity you can't ignore. you know what she asks?"

Frisk shook their head.

Sans continued, "she asked me that if a human came through the ruins, if i could watch over them, make sure nothing happened to them."

You realized very quickly that he was talking about Mom. And it made sense. Mom lost so many children, that she would try and do whatever she could to protect them.

"you realize what that means, pal?" Sans asks.

Frisk smiled, but Sans continued before they could say anything, "you know what would have happened if she hadn't asked?"

There was something about his tone that made Frisk tense, and their smile dropped.

The small eye lights in Sans' went out, making his skull look more eerie. His tone changed as he rumbled, "You'd be dead where you stand."

Frisk shivered and looked down. You could see they were on the verge of tears.

You went cold inside and glared at the skeleton with an intense fury. You could fell the, "black goop," coming out of your eyes, and in your anger you could now feel yourself gripping on to Frisk's hand, tightly. They glanced over at you out of the corner of their eye, alarmed.

They weren't the only one. Sans shifted his head barely over and saw the look you were giving him. There was no doubt about it now, he could see you. After a moment, the eye-lights returned, and he turned back to Frisk, who still looked ready to cry.

"hey lighten up, kiddo," Sans replied, with his normal, lax tone, "just messing with ya. haven't i done a great job watching you? you haven't died once."

Frisk laughed nervously, but Sans caught on to it, "what's with that face? i'm not wrong, am i? anyways, i should get going. be careful out there kid…someone really cares about ya."

Sans sauntered off to the back of the room and vanished.

Your hand phased back through Frisk's as the sentry vanished.

Frisk shook a bit, so you turned to them and said, "Hey, let's get out of here and we can talk, okay?"

Frisk nodded and the two of you walked out into the lobby of what appeared to be the Mettaton Resort. The fountain shaped like the rectangular robot was enough to confirm your suspicions.

"Where did you go?" Frisk whispered to you, taking a seat on the edge of the fountain, "last time we teleported you weren't gone that long."

The memory was hazy, but you told Frisk, "I was in this void. It was black all around me, but someone was there. I think it was the old Royal Scientist I told you about. I think his name is Gaster."

"Are you alright?" Frisk asked, worried.

You nodded, "Yeah, no worse for wear. I am a ghost after all. I don't know why that happened though, or what it means." You frowned to Frisk, "so what was that all about with Sans?"

Frisk sighed, "He was asking me if going and confronting Asgore was really going to be worth it. That I have friends and food and things down here. And the rest, well…you were there for that." They shifted to a weak smile. "You figured out the goopy face trick again."

You went slightly pink, "I was really mad about what he said to you."

They beamed. "You're so protective, babe."

"Stoooop," you groaned, laughing a bit despite your face growing redder, "He saw me though. Did you notice? I know he saw me."

Frisk nodded, "Yeah, I did. What should we do?"

You shrugged. "I have a feeling he's not overly fond of me to begin with, especially if I'm giving him the stink-eye. Even if he deserved it. "

Frisk sighed but agreed, "Yeah, probably." They stretched and yawned. "It's getting late. I wonder how much a room is here?"

Frisk walked up and asked, and upon being told the price, immediately turned it down. They then checked the Glamburger out, but ended up just being told by the cashier, Burgerpants, about bad infomercial products and how he wasted his entire life despite just being nineteen. Frisk nodded along politely before dipping out of there, exhausted.

"I guess I'm going to just keep going." They yawned.

You frowned. "Don't push yourself too hard."

You both approached the large sign reading: CORE at the end of the resort. A SAVE point spawned, and Frisk touched it.

Alphys called Frisk as you walked down the dimly-lit corridors. "Hey Frisk, there should be an elevator at the end of the hallway that will take you right to the core…hey, whose' that?"

At the end of the path, a shadowy figure bolted out of sight. The sight gave you chills down your spine. You cautioned Frisk to be careful. They nodded and approached the elevator, hitting the button quickly. "Alphys, it's not in service," they lamented.

Alphys sounded a bit taken aback. "Huh? That shouldn't be…T-try the path to the right."

Frisk shuffled to the room they were directed to, but there was no bridge. "Can't go this way, Al," Frisk said.

"Damn it…" Alphys sighed, "I guess try the left. It will be okay! W-we got this."

"Totally!" Frisk exclaimed, confidence returning

As they went through the next hallway, you could sense a presence from the shadows. "Frisk, look out!" You yelled.

Frisk jumped to the left just in time to avoid a magic blast. You were both sucked into battle.

"That's a Madjick!" You warned, "they're magic assassin's. They get their powers from their orbs. Stare them into submission!"

Frisk stared down the corner orb while hopping around the attacks of the Chaser Orb, and then vice-versa. Once they were out of commission, the Madjick braced itself for death. "Uh oh," it muttered, but Frisk just walked right past them.

In the next room, the path was blocked off by a switch. Alphys called when Frisk went to push it, and said, "Hey, that's a trap. Lasers are going to come out when you hit that. They'll come as orange, orange, and then blue. So move around for two then stop."

There was a hesitation in her voice that made you unsure. As Frisk hit the switch, you saw the lasers coming were blue.

"FRISK, STOP!" You scream. Frisk halted just in time for the two lasers and shook their arms for the last orange laser. Alphys called right away.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" Alphys squealed, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Frisk assured, but there was hesitation there. They were beginning to doubt Alphys. They walked quickly through the corridors of the CORE, exchanging nervous glances with you along the way.

"We saved at the resort Frisk, don't worry," you assured, but you were still concerned about them getting hurt. They approached another narrow walkway, this one completely covered in blue and orange lasers in a convoluted pattern.

Alphys called in, "Hey, why don't I just turn these off for you?"

Frisk breathed a sigh of relief, "Yeah that would help out a ton."

There was a pause, but nothing happened. "Uh, Alphys…?" Frisk questioned.

"Th-they're not turning off," Alphys explained, "But hold on, I'm going to turn off the power for the whole room, and go!"

The lasers and lights all over the room shut down, and Frisk ran down the hall with phone in hand. They jumped about half way through though as Alphys screamed, "STOP!"

Frisk froze and yelped as the blue lasers kicked on, locking them in place. "Frisk!" You yelled.

"D-don't move!" Alphys squealed, "I..I um, I'm going to actually have to turn off the power and it's going to come back on. Just freeze when it comes back on, okay? I'm s-sorry."

The lights went off, so Frisk ran. When a flicker came on, they stopped. This continued for a bit until Frisk finally made it to the hallway that lead directly to the CORE.

"This um," Alphys stalled, "I... this isn't like any of my maps. I have to go to the bathroom. I'm sorry, Frisk."

Alphy hung up and Frisk frowned at their phone. "What is she doing?"

You went to grab Frisk's shoulder in support, but your hand went through their shoulder. "Hey, you got to Hotland on your own. You can do this."

"Not by myself. We did it together." Frisk replied, smiling at you in a way that made your stomach feel all kind of weird. You'd never felt this way when you were alive. Was this a ghost thing? Were these feelings ghost feelings? If you could ever interact with anyone besides Frisk and Sans, you'd have to ask them.

You floated over to a sign. "It says…North for the Warrior's Way, West for the Sage's Way, both ways open east to The End. All paths lead to The End with patience." You look at Frisk, who was just as confused by the sign as you were. "I don't remember it being this way, but I guess since Dad declared war on humans maybe there was extra security. Let's try West…you're not much of a fighter," you suggested, smiling at them.

"Yeah, well, you love it." Frisk replied with a chuckle and a wink, heading to the West.

"Yeah, yeah," you retorted, only turning a little pink.

Frisk wandered down a long hallway, and came to another box-shooter puzzle. They solved it, and you both heard a clicking noise. "Think that was The End?"

You shrugged, "Let's go check. You're pretty good at puzzles, Sage's way was definitely the way to go."

Frisk blushed a bit, so you felt proud. They stopped at a garbage can and peeked around inside. They took out a Glamburger that was still mostly in the wrapper and put it in their pocket. You gave them a questioning look, "You uh…going to eat that right out of the garbage?"

Frisk got that sad look on their face again, the one they had when you pointed out how they were good at cheering people up. "I uh…it's a long story, Chara."

"I'm sorry Frisk," you muttered, "I was just teasing." You didn't want to hurt their feelings.

"No, it's gross," Frisk agreed, "I'll explain to you some other time."

You walked with them quietly to the East end of the Core. You really felt like you had blown it, but you didn't know what it was or why you felt that way.

You both walked as far East as you could go. Finally, you reached the elevator to the CORE – now you were at the top. It was still out of service. The entrance to the CORE was pitch black, and Frisk hesitated before approaching it.

"Frisk, I…" You had a bad feeling about all this.

"I know," they murmured, "Mettaton is behind all of this, they're the last thing between the barrier and us."

"You figured he's behind all the problems Alphys was having too?" You asked.

They nodded. "Everything about how the two were acting was weird. But," they looked at you and gave their sad smirk, "at some point he stopped playing around. Sending the assassin, messing with the lasers, making it so Alphys couldn't help."

"How are we going to beat this guy?" You wondered, half to Frisk and half to yourself.

Frisk just smiled. "Same way we beat Undyne. We'll figure it out together."

A SAVE point spawned, and Frisk touched it. You nodded to them, "couldn't have said it better myself, partner."

Frisk walked through the dark hallway, and didn't even flinch as a spotlight switched on, revealing Mettaton in the middle of a large room. "Ah yes, there you are darling."

Frisk seemed surprised, not at the robot's presence, but at the fact Mettaton wasn't acting completely dramatic and exuberant, "Hello, Mettaton."

"Time to have our little showdown," Mettaton declared, "Time to stop the, 'malfunctioning,' robot."

"You…you're not malfunctioning at all, are you?" Frisk asked, almost hurt.

"Pfft," Mettaton replied, "malfunctionint? Reprogamming? Get real. It was all fake darling. A big show. An act. A performance."

"Why?" Frisk responded, "What did I do to you?"

"Me?" Mettaton laughed, "Alphys, dearie, Alphys has been playing you for a fool the whole time."

Frisk frowned, "I thought Alphys was my friend."

Mettaton chucked, "I suppose that's what she wanted. See, when she was watching you on her screens, she grew attached to your adventure, to your story. She desperately wanted to be a part of it. So she inserted herself into it."

This seemed to remind Frisk of something, and they shook a bit. "How do you mean?"

"She reactivated puzzles, she disabled elevators," Mettaton explained, "She enlisted me to torment you. All so she could save you from dangers that never existed."

Frisk looked away. Something about this was really hurting them.

"All so you would think she's the great person that she's not." Mettaton seemed almost a little delighted in this, but there was some hurt in his voice too. You weren't sure which was more genuine. "And now she's prepping for her finest hour. Alphys is right outside this room, taking the elevator that you couldn't. Once we're in our little battle, she'll come deactivate me so she can save you from me one last time."

Frisk said nothing. You felt nothing but pity and sorrow for them. You grabbed their hand and gave a small squeeze.

"She'll be the heroine of this little story, and with how high you'll hold her, you'll even be convinced not to leave the underground," Mettaton crowed.

"So this is what you want too?" Frisk asked, keeping on a brave voice despite feeling obviously betrayed.

"Oh no!" Mettaton exclaimed. You heard the door slam shut behind you, and you whipped around to see the light from CORE was nowhere in sight. "I have no desire to hurt humans, actually. All I want is to entertain. Don't you think the audience deserves a good show, darling?"

Frisk noticed the cameras in the corners and walls of the room. They did not wave.

"What's a good show without a plot twist?" Mettaton asked.

Pounding came from the door. You could hear Alphys. "H-hey! What's happening?! Frisk?!"

"Sorry doc, but your show is cancelled!" Mettaton squealed, and red spotlights filled the room, "But the finale is going to be wild!"

The room shifted, and like an elevator, you could feel yourself going up and up. "Real action! Real drama! Real bloodshed!" Mettaton cried, "on our series finale:"

You were sucked into battle with Frisk as Mettaton finished, "Attack of the Killer Robot."

Frisk dodged some exploding heart-shaped magic bullets. Mettaton continued to rant, "Yes, it was I who rearranged the CORE, and who hired Muffet and some other monsters to kill you!"

"I mean I kind of figured," Frisk yelled back, looking around for a way to get out of this mess. Unlike Undyne, there was nowhere to run.

"But that's a short sighted plan!" Mettaton explained, "you know what would be way better? Killing you myself!"

"Chara, you have any witty comebacks for this right now?" Frisk asked, sounding a bit desperate.

You shook your head. "The only burns around here are going to be you if things keep going in this manner."

"See, that's clever, you can't direct one of those to him?" Frisk grumbles, rolling their eyes as they roll out of the way of Mettaton's attack.

"Give it up, darling, I've seen you fight," Mettaton sighed, "If you make it past me, Asgore will tear you to pieces. He'll take your soul and destroy humanity."

The thought sent chills down your spine. Dad was the most gentle person you knew. You had been prepared to destroy however many people it took to save the monsters, but you thought at the time that it was justifiable because you were already a bad kid, a demon child. But Dad was not. Dad was good.

"Give your soul to ME, human," Mettaton pleaded, raining down magic blocks towards Frisk, who danced around them, "I can stop his plan. And with your soul, I can leave the Underground and became an entertainer for all of mankind!"

Frisk's phone rang, and they put it to their ear while ducking. "Kind of busy right now…"

It was Alphys, and Frisk frowned at her voice. "I-I don't know what's going on in there, but there's one last idea I have. There's a switch on Mettaton's back. If you flip it, he'll be…vulnerable. I…I'm sorry."

"Now might be a good time to turn Mettaton around," You suggested, dryly. Frisk snuck a smirk at you.

"Hey look," Frisk yelled, "a mirror!'

You were astounded that somehow, that worked, and Mettaton whipped around to check his looks. Frisk ran up and flipped a comically oversized switch on his back. "DID YOU. JUST FLIP. MY SWITCH?"

Mettaton began sparking and cracking. Frisk yelped and jumped away. "WELL IF YOU'RE SO EAGER TO SEE MY NEW BODY, YOUR DEATH WILL BE…ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!"

The room filled up with smoke, and Frisk began to cough. "Hang in there!" You pleaded. Between their coughs, Frisk gave you a thumbs up.

Finally, the smoke cleared, and both you and Frisk's jaw dropped.

"What?!" Frisk exclaimed.

"What." You deadpanned.

"OOOOHH YES!" Mettaton crowed electronically, stepping out to reveal …a very different form. He had a very feminine look that was almost humanoid in nature, with exaggerated hips and legs, a heart on their midsection, and lots of black and pink everywhere.

"Series finale, new body!" Mettaton declared, proudly. A screen slid down behind them, and it showed the ratings for the live episode. It was fluctuating around four thousand.

Leg's made of magic materialized around Frisk and began kicking at them. Frisk dodged most of them, but was kicked by the last one. The violence spiked up the ratings. Mettaton noticed and squealed in delight.

"You okay?" You asked. Frisk nodded, "good. I have an idea. We need to find a way to bring up the ratings. I think that will distract Mettaton enough to get them to change their mind. Or get away. Something."

Frisk grinned. "Good call." Frisk posed dramatically for the camera. "Lucky shot, vile robot villain," Frisk yelled, pointing to the sky, "but you won't get another shot on me again!"

Mettaton raised an eyebrow. "What are you getting at, darling?"

Frisk danced around more magic kicks and boxes that fell from the sky. They were beginning to sweat a bit though. Ratings climbed more as Frisk dodged more attacks.

"I think it's working," you told them, "you're building suspense!"

"I don't know if I can keep this up," Frisk panted.

You thought for a moment. "Be the bad guy. Make the audience want you to get hit."

Frisk gave you an uncomfortable look.

"Ah," you realized, "You want me to do the trash-talking?"

Frisk nodded, so you momentarily snapped up control. "Told you, robotic swine!" You put on your best villainous snarl, contorted slightly through Frisk's naturally cute face (and Frisk giggled as you thought this, which was embarrassing), "But unlike your pathetic viewers, I'm too fast for you to hit."

Frisk snapped back control and began dodging again. "Find one of those boxes falling and let one hit you," You suggested.

Frisk did as such, and cried in pain a bit, filling you to the brim with guilt. But they looked up and saw the ratings spike as they got hit and smiled to you, despite the pain. They then rolled across the floor in exaggerated pain, posing dramatically as they stopped. "BLARGH!"

You laughed and applauded, "Encore!"

The ratings agreed, climbing closer to nine thousand. Mettaton snuck a glance and squealed a bit as well.

"They're getting really happy about those numbers," you encouraged Frisk, "keep it up. Try anything. Make it dramatic. This is probably the most exciting thing on Underground Live TV they've ever had."

Frisk nodded. They pulled out their stick, held it high, and shouted, "Take this, you cur!"

"Who calls someone a cur?" You laughed. Frisk threw the stick at Mettaton and to both your surprise, the robot extended their telescopic neck and caught the stick in their teeth. The ratings took a massive jump after that.

"That's not the only trick up my…sleeve, darling!" Mettaton yelled, playing up the dramatics as well. They extended out their robotic arms and tried to grab Frisk. Your friend rolled out of the way just in time. They ran towards Mettaton, jumped over an extended arm, and then circled back so that the two arms got crossed. Then Frisk grabbed Mettaton's hands, danced with them a bit, and pulled. However, they were shocked to see the arms come out of the robotic sockets altogether. "Oops."

You hooted and applauded, and saw the audience agreed as the numbers began to soar.

"Well…who needs arms when you have legs like THESE?!" Mettaton said, clearly trying not to let the surprising turn of events affect their performance.

More magic legs appeared around Frisk and began stomping and kicking.

"I'm warning you, I'm…" Frisk winked to the camera, "Well-armed!"

Somehow, the ratings skyrocketed from the terrible joke. Mettaton cried in delight. "Look at those numbers! It's a new record. Good show, darling, you're a natural!"

Frisk snuck you a smile. Your plan seemed to be working.

"Now, for one time only, I'll allow a one-time caller to speak live on the air!" Mettaton said, a speaker sliding out from a panel on their back.

"Uh…hello?" You recognized the voice; it was Napstablook. "Mettaton? I…I really like the show. But…this is the last episode I guess? Bummer…"

As the ghost spoke, Mettaton looked absolutely heartbroken.

"I didn't mean to talk too long….oh noo….." Napstablook hung up.

Frisk looked sad. They hated seeing anyone sad, especially the fun ghost DJ.

"Wait, Blo-I mean," Mettaton caught themselves, and you wondered if they perhaps knew about Napstablook. They brushed it off though, "Let's take some more callers."

Tons of voices came pouring from the speaker all at once:

"Mettaton! Don't go!"

"You're leaving a Mettaton-shaped hole in my Mettaton-Shaped heart!"

"METTATON, I MADE YOU SPAGHETTI!"

"Oh hey, Papyrus got through," you laughed, and Frisk snickered.

Mettaton sighed and looked at Frisk, "Look darling…perhaps I shall put off my big debut to the surface for another time. Humans already have plenty of stars. But the monsters? They only have me."

"That's very big of you," Frisk encouraged, earnestly.

Mettaton smiled. "You're stronger than you look. Maybe you can make it past Asgore. But alas…don't worry about me!"

"We were worried about Mettaton?" You asked, confused. Frisk held in a laugh.

"This form's battery power is…" Mettaton hesitated before saying, "inefficient. But I shall be okay."

"Well you better," Frisk smiled, "one of my friend's just made you spaghetti."

"Be a star, darling!" Mettaton shouted, "Shine as brightly as you can!" With that, the lights behind Mettaton's eyes went out, and their batteries gave out.

"Way to go!" You cheered Frisk, blushing slightly, "You did it!"

Frisk grinned at you, "Only with help from the most beautiful partner in the underground."

Your face burned, but you were saved by the sound of the door opening behind the both of you.

Alphys ran in and squealed, "Oh my God!" They ran right past Frisk and checked on Mettaton. "Oh thank goodness. Just out of batteries…"

Frisk froze up, and looked away from the doctor. You could tell they were still very upset about what Mettaton had said. They were on the verge of tears, and it broke your heart. You reached over and squeezed their hand. It took you a second to realize that you were able to, but you were able to hold on for a few more seconds before your fingers slipped through theirs.

Frisk walked briskly to the other side of the room. Alphys noticed them and added, hastily, "I mean, they're just a robot, I could always…rebuild them."

Frisk paused, and without looking, nodded and said, "I'm glad your friend is okay, Alphys."

Frisk left and began walking down the hallway that would take them to New Home. Alphys followed after them in an awkward silence. As Frisk reached the elevator, the doctor blurted out, "W-wait!"

Frisk cringed.

"There's something you need to know about the barrier…it takes more than a human soul to get through."

Frisk's heart dropped and they turned to the doctor.

Alphys sighed. "It takes at least a human soul and a monster soul. To get through the barrier, you'll…have to kill Asgore. I'm sorry."

Alphys turned and ran, tears in her eyes.

Frisk looked at you in despair. You nodded. A tear ran down Frisk's cheek, and you wanted to wipe it off, but you didn't try.

Frisk shambled into the elevator, and you followed. During the long elevator ride, Frisk asked, quietly, "Why didn't you tell me I'd have to kill your Dad?"

You felt like crying yourself. "I…I was hoping it wouldn't come to that."

Frisk wiped their eyes and sniffed. They seemed at a loss for words, so you changed the subject.

"I know what Alphys did was crappy, but you seemed to be taking it pretty hard," You observed, "I don't think she meant to hurt you or anything."

Frisk buried their head in their knees as they sat on the floor. "I've been lied to a lot, Chara. I know she meant well." They looked at you, and the pain on their face broke you, "But good intentions doesn't make hurting people okay."

Ouch. That certainly sounded like something familiar.

"I'm not mad at her." Frisk clarified, "I get it. She's shy and probably just needs friends. But, it just reminded me of…well…"

The elevator dinged, making you both jump.

"Let's just go," Frisk mumbled, getting up and walking out the door.

You frowned. Hotland had been rough on Frisk, and it seemed like their past was creeping up on them.

You looked around the familiar walls of New Home. "It's a bit like the Ruins," Frisk observed, causing you to nod. A SAVE point spawned, and Frisk touched it. They walked up to the house, and went inside.

The path to the barrier was chained up. Frisk glanced at you and you read it, "It says, 'Howdy! I'm in the garden. If there's anything you need to get off your chest, please don't hesitate to come. The keys are in the kitchen and the hallway.'"

Frisk nodded and headed towards the kitchen, already able to see that the house was built just like the one in the Ruins.

As Frisk grabbed the key from the counter, you took a peek in the full garbage pail. Frisk joined you and asked, "What are they?"

You frowned. "Butter-scotch and cinnamon pie recipes." You had figured, not long after joining Frisk and seeing Mom again, that she and Dad weren't together, but seeing the pie recipes in the garbage really hit home.

"Hey, come on," Frisk said, giving you a small smile. "Show me your room."

You returned the effort and lead them to the bedroom. First, they grabbed the key on the shelf, and then followed you into the room you had shared with Asriel.

You were both surprised to see two Froggits there. They stared at Frisk, and instead of fighting him, spoke.

"A long time ago, a human fell into the RUINS."

Your heart sank. You knew where this was going. The Froggit's nodded to a picture of you, Mom, Dad, and Asriel on the dress. Frisk looked it over.

"Injured by their fall, the human called out for help."

Frisk looked at your bed and then to you. "It's a comfy bed," you told them, your voice cracking as memories of Mom and Dad crying over you came flooding back, "If you fell asleep on it, you might never wake up." You certainly didn't.

Next to the bed laid Asriel's old gardening knife. "Take it," you pleaded with Frisk. Frisk looked uncomfortable, but didn't want to argue with you in front of the Froggits. "Please," you begged them, "I know you've been able to make friends with everyone up until now. But I don't know what's happened to Dad since I died. He might not stop."

Frisk shivered, so you stood in front of them, between the Froggits and Frisk, and pleaded once more, "Frisk. No matter what you learn about me, I'm going to tell you something that's always true: I'm not going to forgive myself if anything happens to you.

Frisk looked heartbroken to see you so distraught, so they reluctantly grabbed the worn knife and waved goodbye to the Froggits as they left. Before they did, they grabbed the locket you had given Asriel years ago, that was on the bed too. They opened it, and saw the picture of you and Asriel, that read, "best friends forever." You began to cry, and Frisk looked ready to cry as well, understanding the meaning even if they couldn't read the words. They pushed it off and opened there door, where two Whimsuns were waiting.

"Asriel, the king's son, heard the human's call." One said.

"He brought the injured human back to the castle." The other added.

Frisk walked past them and looked at you. They whispered, "Chara…" And tried to hold your hand, but despite how sad you both were, it didn't work. You weren't ready for them to know this story, especially considering you don't know how much the populace found out…

There were more monsters in the hallway. Three Moldsmals greeted Frisk in unison, "Over time, Asriel and the human became like siblings. The king and queen treated the human child as their own. The underground was full of hope. "

Frisk walked to the end of the hall with you. They stopped and looked in the mirror, and you looked too, even knowing that you weren't going to show up. "Despite everything, it's still you," you said, proudly.

"Despite everything, you're still cute." Frisk whispered to you, smiling. You chuckled through your tears at their attempt to cheer you up.

Frisk explored Dad's room a bit. If you weren't so upset already, you'd be upset that they were seeing the macaroni art flower you made for Dad when he got sick. "It says for King Dad," you explained, trying to keep it together. Frisk saw the sweater you had knit for him too,.

Frisk looked at you though, and saw how much this was hurting you, so they walked back to the front of the house and unlocked the chain. They stopped and looked at a calendar on the bookshelf.

"It's a calendar from the year 201X," you said, shakily, "there's a date circled on there…it's the date I first came here."

A tear ran down Frisk's face as well, which wasn't helping you hold yours in at all.

Frisk journeyed downstairs, and was greeted by more monsters. They all lined the halls, telling Frisk a line as they passed.

"Then one day…"

"The human became very ill."

"The sick human had only one request."

"To see the golden flowers from their village."

"But there was nothing we could do."

"The next day….the human died."

"Asriel, wracked with grief, absorbed the human's soul, and became a being of incredible power."

You sobbed as you floated by with Frisk. You didn't want to hear this. You wanted to tune it out, but you couldn't.

"With the Human SOUL, Asriel crossed through the barrier. He carried the body of the human into the sunset, back to the village of humans."

"Asriel reached the center of the village, and carried the human onto a bed of golden flowers."

Frisk was now walking through the corridor that overlooked the city of the CORE. It was becoming overcrowded and polluted. The sight had always made you sad, since the monsters deserved better, but now it was worse. If you hadn't been such a failure, maybe they'd have a better life by now.

"Suddenly, screams rang out in the village. The humans saw Asriel carrying the human's body, thinking he had killed the child."

"The humans attacked him with everything they had. He was struck with blow after blow. Asriel had the power to destroy them all."

"But Asriel did not fight back. Clutching the human, he smiled and walked away."

Frisk wiped their tears away as they walked.

You cried harder. They were off. They were so off. And you wanted to scream that they had it wrong, that you had tricked your best friend, your brother, into your scheme for revenge, and Asriel stopped you from restarting the war, that you were a stupid demon who only brought pain to the only family you ever knew.

But you couldn't. You couldn't do anything. Just like when you were alive.

"Wounded, Asriel stumbled home. He entered the castle and collapsed. His dust spread across the garden."

Frisk gasped in horror and sadness.

"The kingdom fell into despair. The king and queen had lost two children in one night. The humans had once again taken everything from us."

"The kind decided it was time to end our suffering. Every human who falls down here must die. With enough human souls, we can shatter the barrier."

Frisk looked at you with a yearning to make you stop crying, and the guilt you were feeling swelled up even more. They were pitying you because they didn't know you were a demon.

"It's not long now."

"King Asgore will let us go."

"King Asgore will give us hope."

"King Asgore will set us free."

"You should be smiling too."

"Aren't you excited?"

"Aren't you happy?"

A lone Froggit sat at the end of the hallway, and they croaked to Frisk, "you're going to be free."

Frisk looked back to all the monsters, and gave their biggest smile. "Thank you so much for telling me."

A SAVE Point spawned. Frisk touched it. But then looked at you.

"Chara…" they began. You flinched. The monsters only had the half of it. The only part of your plan that worked out was the cover story. But no one knew. No one knew that you did on purpose. No one new that in an underground full of bizarre and fantastic creatures, the only monster had been you all along.

"Chara, I'm so sorry about what happened to you and your brother. Is that what you couldn't tell me?" Frisk asked.

You froze, tears in your eyes. What could you do? Could you tell Frisk? You remembered what they said…they had been lied to before. You didn't want to lie to Frisk.

But you found yourself nodding. "Yes…I still haven't forgiven myself for Asriel's death."

Maybe it was better this way. And besides…that part was true.

"You didn't want for it to happen, Chara," Frisk assured you, quietly, walking down the corridor to the castle garden, "And I promise I'll always be here for you."

Guilt welled up and sat in your stomach. You didn't deserve a person like Frisk in your life (afterlife). But you were both snapped from this as you saw someone standing the in the corridor.

"heya," the stocky skeleton said, "So you finally made it. The end of your journey is at hand. In a few moments, you will meet the king."

Sans was talking in a different tone, and it was throwing you and Frisk off.

"Together, you will determine the future of this world."

Sans stepped forward. "That's then. Now? Now you will be judged. You will be judged for every action. You will be judged for every EXP you gained."

You remembered Flowey talking about EXP to Frisk back when you first ran into him. But you didn't know much about it.

"What's EXP? It's an acronym. It stands for execution points, a way of measuring the how much pain you have inflicted on others. And if you have enough EXP from killing, your LOVE increases."

"Love?" Frisk asked, confused at how execution points could mean love. But you figured this had more to do with Flowey being a sneaky bastard.

"LOVE, too, is an acronym. It stands for Level of Violence. It measures one's capacity to hurt others."

But then Sans stepped into the light, smiling genuinely at Frisk. "But you never gained any LOVE. You kept a certain tenderness in your heart. Even when running away, you did it with a smile on your face. You refused to hurt anyone, and you strived to do the right thing."

Frisk smiled back.

"But now….now you will face the biggest challenge of your journey. What you do here will determine the fate of the world. If you refuse to fight, Asgore will take your soul and destroy humanity. But if you kill him, monsters will remain trapped underground. What will you do?"

Frisk looked down and snuck a sad glance at you. You could tell they were really unsure of themselves.

"Well, if I were you, I would have thrown in the towel. But you didn't get this far by throwing in the towel, did you? That's right. I know all bout your determination."

You and Frisk looked up in surprise. Sans continued, "So long as you do what's in your heart, I believe you can do the right thing, no matter how long it might take. Well. Good luck, kid."

"Sans, wait!" Frisk yelled, but it was too late. He had already teleported away.

A silence hung in the air. But, Frisk took a deep breath, and looked at you. "Well Chara. Are you ready?"

You looked back nervously, "What are you going to do, Frisk?"

They gave a half-smile in response. "I don't know. But can we figure it out together?"

You gave them a half-smile back, despite your guilty conscience. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this chapter was emotionally taxing.


	8. Souls and Dates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You trust Frisk, but you aren't sure if they're using their best judgment on this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone for all the great words and kudos so far. I've always thought that it must be really hard for Narrator Chara at certain parts of the story, so getting it out was something.
> 
> Undertale belongs to Toby Fox

Frisk touched the SAVE point outside of the throne room and took a deep breath.

You bit your lip. You didn't want Frisk to get hurt, but you didn't want them to kill your dad either. You were torn.

You and Frisk looked to each other and gave each other supportive smiles. You couldn't hold their hand, but you put your hand around there's anyway. A pink tinge touched both of your cheeks.

You both entered the throne room, where dad had his back turned, watering the golden flowers.

"Excuse me, sir," Frisk greeted, politeness masking the sadness in their voice.

Dad turned around and greeted Frisk with his usual jovial attitude that always felt warm and welcoming. "Howdy What can I..do…"

Dad's face fell when he saw who he was talking to. He didn't seem any happier about this than the two of you. "Oh," he said, quietly.

Frisk sighed and nodded. "I…I'd like to leave, sir."

Dad looked outside the window, and from this part of the garden you could see the sun peeking in through the barrier, giving the room a twilight-looking effect. "It's a beautiful day outside. Birds and singing, flowers are blooming," he game Frisk a polite, fake smile, "great day for a game of catch."

Frisk rubbed the back of their head. "Yeah, that'd be nice…I've never had anyone to do that with."

Asgore stepped towards the back of the garden, "I'd love to offer you a cup of tea, but, well…I'm afraid you know how it is. Come with me."

Frisk walked slowly behind Asgore, you following next to them. Frisk desperately tried to grasp your hand to no avail, but you kept it there as if it was around their hand because it was the most you could do.

"Oh dear…You know, I'm nervous too," Dad said, "Just…think of it as a trip to the dentist."

Frisk frowned as they followed. This broke your heart; neither of them wanted this, and it was your fault. Dad declared war on all the humans who fell down because of what you had brought upon Asriel and yourself. You were reaping what you sowed, even in death.

Dad stopped before the barrier room. "Human," he said, a bit shaky, "if there is anything you need to do, I would advise you go and do it now. I will wait for you here."

Frisk hesitated as Dad walked into the barrier room. A SAVE point appeared, and you knew despite Frisk's hesitation, they were as determined as ever to make it to the surface. "Anything we're forgetting, Chara?"

You shook your head, "Nope, I don't think so."

Frisk took one more deep breath. "Well, here goes."

They entered the doorway and approached Dad from behind.

"This is the barrier," Dad explained, "and with one more soul, I will have the power to set my people free."

Containers with six human souls popped from the ground. A seventh, empty container was with them.

"Human…" Dad said, breath slowing, "It was nice to have met you."

Like that, you were sucked into battle, next to Frisk.

"We don't have to do this," Frisk pleaded, "I don't want to hurt anyone."

You cried out in surprise, pain, and despair as Dad, without hearing Frisk, plunged his trident into Frisk's chest without listening, faster than you had ever seen him move before.

"Oh…" Frisk squeaked before dying, and suddenly you were both thrown outside the barrier room as they RESET.

"Frisk," You said, disoriented, "he's already killed six other humans. He isn't going to listen." Truthfully, you weren't sure if Dad himself had killed the humans. Perhaps Undyne or some guards had, or they had fallen before they even made it here. But the point still stood.

Frisk frowned and walked back into the room. As the battle started, Frisk looked at Dad and said, very calmly, "You've already killed me once."

To your surprise, Dad nodded. Was he…was he aware of the resets? He shot fire magic at Frisk, who dodged out of the way, but then they were struck, again, through the chest by Dad's trident.

Frisk RESET.

"Frisk," you said, almost pleading, "stop, he's not going to let you through."

Frisk tried again. This time dodging the fire attack and the trident, and told Dad, "Neither of us want this. You seem really nice."

Frisk dodged another trident blow, but stepped right into a wall of fire, burning them. They held on. "Let's talk this over with some tea."

They were once again struck through the chest with a trident.

You stayed silent now as Frisk kept trying. You don't know how many attempts they went through trying to talk down Dad, every time they extended the fight out more and more, having learned the pattern of Dad's attacks. But no matter what Frisk did, Dad would not listen.

After many attempts, Frisk hesitated before going in the room. "Chara."

"Hm?" You responded, at a loss for words. It was hard to watch.

"I…I don't think I can spare your dad."

You nodded. "I know, Frisk."

"I'm…I'm so sorry," Frisk said, trying not to choke, "I tried."

You gave them a faint smile. "I know you did, Frisk."

They stared at the worn dagger that they had grabbed from your room. "I hope one day you can forgive me."

You didn't say anything, because you didn't hold this against them in the first place. But you also knew Frisk was doubting whether they'd ever forgive themselves for this.

This time, when Frisk dodged a trident thrust from Dad, they slashed back with the knife. The cut went deep into Dad's arm, making him drop the trident. He threw some fire magic at Frisk, but they knew exactly how to dodge it after dying so many times. Frisk approached Dad, and you cried as he slid the knife in to Dad's stomach. Dad dropped to his knees.

"Human…" Dad gasped. You know dad could still make it if he wanted to; Frisk couldn't have fatally hurt him already unless they really wanted Asgore dead. "You are quite strong. Take my SOUL, and cross the barrier."

Frisk raised the knife…but dropped it. "I can't."

Dad was surprised. "After all that, you would show me mercy?"

Frisk nodded.

Dad smiled, "Yes…yes, you can stay here with me. We can stay with my wife and be a family. I grow tired of this war."

There was a noise, and you looked around. It was hard to see with the light from the barrier so dimly glowing, but had dad brought a flower from the garden in here?

Wait.

"Dad look out!" You cried, but it was too late. "Friendliness pellets," surrounded dad and collapsed on him, turning him to dust, and they did the same thing with his soul.

Flowey popped out of the ground and stuck it's tongue out at Frisk. "Well howdy, YOU IDIOT!"

Frisk's face fell. "But...the soul..the barrier. Why?!"

"What, did you get about your BEST FRIEND FLOWEY?!" Flowery cackled, showing his sharp fangs, "I sure didn't forget you, Frisky-bits! And look what I took while you were busy crying over figuring out how to spare Asgore?"

The six human souls rotated around Flowey.

"Oh no," Frisk groaned.

"Oh shit," you swore.

"NYAHAHAHAHAHAH!" Cackled Flowey, and everything went white.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You couldn't find Frisk. You couldn't find Flowey. You couldn't see anything that was going on around you. You could hear, faintly as if it were in the distance, the sound of Frisk dying over and over again. You had to get to them. You couldn't do much, but you had to be there with Frisk.

They shouldn't go through this alone.

You found yourself able to move through the void. You tried your best to move towards the sound of Frisk's voice, but it seemed to be coming from all around you.

You turned around and chased the voice, to no avail. But then, the fifth time you changed directions, there was someone else there. The tall skeleton from the void was behind you, giving you an eerie smile. But that was not your concern right now.

"Gaster," you pleaded, "I need to find Frisk. They need my help."

Gaster's smile faltered a bit. He spoke, but it was in a language you couldn't understand.

"What?!" You exclaimed, and demanded, "Frisk needs me. Please!"

The skeleton cleared his throat and spoke, slowly, in a way you could understand. It was clear that it took great effort to do so. "The world is falling apart."

"What…what do you mean?" You asked.

"The flower…has used the human souls to rewrite all of the history of the underground." Gaster explained. "The time stream in this place has always been unstable, and every RESET he's caused has disrupted it further and further." Gaster gave you a piercing stare, but did not drop the creepy smile, "And the jumps the two of you caused did not help it any further."

"Well, all the more reason Frisk and I need to stop him," you huffed, not in any mood to get disciplined by someone you weren't sure was even real right now, "where are they?!"

Gaster paused, clearly evaluating you and weighing his options. "Only you can find them. The universe is falling apart. It is the bond the two of you share that bridges life, death, and the void."

"Yeah, cryptic vague stuff is not helping right now," you sighed, "I've been trying to find them, and I found you instead."

"No," Gaster replied with a chuckle, "I got in the way. You'll understand in time. Keep going."

You blinked and Gaster was gone. But you heard a noise that you could swear was Frisk, so you took off running.

"Frisk!" You screamed, trying your hardest to follow their voice. You turned and ran, turning again and again as the direction of Frisk's cries echoed from all around you.

Suddenly, you felt yourself trip, and you were falling. Falling towards a monstrosity of vines and technology far below you, and a little dot fighting back that you knew in your heart was Frisk.

Floating around the fight, were the six human souls, all differently colored than Frisk's. Periodically, Flowey (what you assumed he had become) would use an attack that would call upon a soul, the color would drain from it for the time being.

You had stopped falling, too far away from the fight. Try as you might, you could not get closer. You shouted out for Frisk, but they couldn't hear you.

Gaster was right. Flower was SAVING and RESETTING at a rate far different than anything you or Frisk had ever been capable, jumping around in different points of the fight to kill Frisk, bring them back again, and kill them once more. Frisk, despite being outclassed in determination by Flowey was able to bring themselves to the beginning of the fight every time they died, but it took them longer and longer every time.

You could hear cries for help, but this time they weren't coming for Frisk.

The souls. Every time Flowey utilized a soul, it seemed to emit a faint cry of pain. You noticed that Flowey was using a pattern every time he attacked. You flew to the next soul in his order.

"Hey, don't take this lying down. Be patient. Persevere. Be brave!" You encouraged soul, "Fight back! Stay determined! Frisk is the best shot any of you have!"

A feeling of warmth washed over you. The soul had heard you. And this time, when Flowey tried to use the soul to have magical knives attach Frisk, green magic appeared to heal your friend. In the distance, you could see confusion and relief on Frisk's face.

The soul flew off to join Frisk.

Your heart soared and you raced off to encourage the other souls. One by one, they began to break the grasp of Flowey's control. They would heal Frisk, and then flew off, helping Frisk fight back with the worn dagger they were still clutching from your room.

With every soul that broke free, you could feel yourself able to get closer and closer to the fight. As you approached Frisk, Flowey RESET time in the fight one more time, himself, and giving Frisk a trolling look, before attacking. Frisk dropped to a knee, near death. You ran to them and kneeled beside them, wrapping your arms around them in a combination of relief for having found them, and fear for their well-being.

"Ch-Chara?" They whispered.

"I'm here," you assured them, "always."

HP restored.

"Whatever, let's just try that again," Flowey crowed.

LOAD FAILED.

"Wh-what?!" Flowey shrieked. He looked around nervously to see the six human souls flying all around him, making a buzzing, droning noise. "Hey, let's just work this –AAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGGHH."

The SOULS rebelled against Flowey and attacked, causing another blinding white light. When the light cleared, a battered Flowey was all that remained, in front of Frisk.

For a moment, no one moved.

"Well," Flowey spat, "Go on. Kill me."

The flower's back was turned to you both, so Frisk looked at you.

You paused. "I mean. He deserves it," You admitted, "but that's not your style, is it?"

Frisk shook their head. "Nope."

You weren't sure if they were addressing you or Flowey, but Flowey heard. "What? Don't be an idiot."

Frisk folded their arms. "No."

"I'll do it again." Flowey snarled, trying to sound intimidating. But for how beat up they sounded, it just came off as pathetic.

"Flowey, stop." Frisk replied.

"I'll kill you!" Flowey snapped. They turned around and gave Frisk the fanged look, but Frisk wasn't intimidated this time.

"No, you won't." Frisk said, calmly. "It's going to be okay."

"I'll kill everyone you love and care about!" Flowey screamed, but they were cracking.

"Flowey…stop." Frisk answered, smiling.

Flowey's angry face fell. "Why…why are you being so nice to me?"

Frisk smiled again, warmly, to the flower, "Let's figure this out together. Come on."

Flowey got defensive. "Just…just leave. Get out of here! While there's enough energy from the Souls to get through the barrier."

Frisk hesitated. "I want…I want everyone to be free."

Flowey looked genuinely surprised. "What?!"

You leaned in over Frisk's shoulder. "Frisk, be careful about this."

Frisk tensed a bit at your words. "There has to be a way I can save everyone. Right? There are already six human souls. There must be a way I can use them so everyone can be free. Even you."

Flowey blinked a few times. "You would do that, huh? You can leave right now, but you want to stay and figure out some way to give everyone a happy ending?

"Do you know a way?" Frisk asked.

Flowey raised an eyebrow. "Are you seriously asking me for help? I just tried to kill you. I DID kill you. A lot."

"I feel a lot better about my reactions now knowing I'm not the only person to point that out," you quipped to Frisk, who shook to hold back a laugh.

"I've met a lot of good people down here," Frisk responded, keeping their composure remarkably well, "if I can help them, I want to."

Flowey thought. You felt pretty uneasy about this. "Frisk," you whispered, "are you sure about this?"

Frisk went to squeeze your hand, but couldn't. Still, you knew it was an effort of reassurance.

"Look Flowey," Frisk said, "I don't know why you're like this, but I mean it. I want to help you."

Flowey smiled. Frisk seemed to buy it, but you thought it looked a bit rehearsed. "Alright kiddo," Flowey said. "I've got a good idea. Can you RESET to before your fight with Asgore?"

Frisk didn't say anything, and you realized they weren't sure. "Yeah, we can," you whispered.

Frisk nodded. Flowey beamed plastically, "Alright. You do that, and then head back down to the entrance of the CORE. I've got a plan."

Flowey popped into the ground without another word.

"Frisk…Frisk I don't like this." You said, shaking, "I don't trust him."

Frisk grimaced to you. "Chara, I have to try. I can't go back to the surface knowing that all my friends are stuck down here. Maybe forever."

You bit your lip, slightly amazed. "You're something, Frisk. Okay, if this is what you want, I'm with you. Let's go back. You ready?"

Frisk nodded. They closed their eyes, and RESET all the way back to before they...well to before their most recent fight with Dad. You felt a bit of relief. Frisk could sense it too, and said, "hey, maybe now I won't need to do that to your dad."

You smiled slightly. But you weren't sure what Flowey had in store was going to be any kinder. Still, if Frisk could have this much hope, it wouldn't kill you to do the same.

Quietly, Frisk walked away, making their way through New Home, backwards. You didn't say much. You still felt awkward about Frisk being told only part of the story of what happened to you and of your brother. Frisk, ever the empathetic one, seemed to understand and was quiet as well. Or perhaps they had a lot on their mind too.

You reminisced all the times you and Asriel had together. And to think, it wasn't long ago that you spent all your days raging at Asriel for messing up the plan. You had lost sight of all the things that made you yourself, that had made you want to save monster-kind of the first place.

As Frisk got to the part of New Home that resembled the Home from the Ruins, they yawned. "It's going to be dawn soon," you pointed out, "you've been at it for a full day. Why don't you go to my room and take a rest?"

Frisk must have been tired, because they didn't take that opportunity to flirt with you. "What if your dad comes back?"

You paused. "Hmm. Good point. I can keep guard for you? I'm not tired. Ghost perk."

Frisk gave you a tired smile. "So good to me."

You blushed. "Come on Casanova, let's get you to bed." You blushed harder as Frisk winked at you, "cut that out! We're kids!"

Frisk went in your room and paused, before rolling onto Asriel's bed. You didn't blame them, considering you more or less told them about how you had died on the other bed. "Good night, babe," Frisk mumbled to you before drifting off quickly into light snores.

You smiled as you turned pink. You still were feeling a lot of things; still rushing from the fight the monstrous version of Flowey, still feeling anxious about the deal Frisk struck up with them, and still guilty about having lied to them about your death in the first place. Perhaps you would tell them the truth when this was all over. You just didn't want this to change. You didn't know what the feelings Frisk made you feel were, but they were nice and you didn't want them to stop.

You paced around the room, listening for the possibility of Dad returning. But as you did, you peeked your head inside the dress drawers, finding your old knitting needles. Asriel would always tease you about that, so you would tease him back, and then he'd cry.

You wondered about knitting Frisk a new sweater if you ever were able to become corporeal or get a new body. Their current one was getting a bit threadbare from all the magic attacks. Yes, if you ever could, you'd do that. It would be the least you could do.

After some time, Frisk began to stir. They sat up and rubbed their eyes. "Morning, sunshine," they greeted you with a tired grin.

You smirked back. "Hey you. Ready to get going?"

Frisk nodded and hopped out of bed. "No Asgore?"

You shook your head. "Nope."

The two of you left New Home and began to walk back through the CORE. Thankfully, the elevator was working. On the ride down, Frisk asked you, "So…those times in Waterfall that I fell or Undyne killed me, that voice I heard telling you to be determined…that was your Dad? And when I fell, that was Asriel?"

You nodded. "Yeah. I don't know why you're seeing my memories, but yeah."

Frisk smiled. "Probably the same reason I'm the only person – well, besides Sans – who can see you."

"Yeah? Why do you think that is?" You asked.

The elevator dinged. Frisk just winked at you and walked out of the elevator happily. You chuckled and walked after them.

Once outside of Mettaton's lobby, Frisk's phone rang.

"Hello?" They asked.

"Hey, punk," Undyne said, "I'm at Papyrus'. Could you come here and help me out with something? It's urgent."

You and Frisk exchanged raised eyebrows. "Of course Undyne!" Frisk agreed, "be there as soon as I can."

Frisk began walking through Hotland and hopped on the elevator, setting it for Alphys' lab. "Think this has anything to do with Flowey's plan?" You asked.

They shrugged. "I would think so, but you never know I guess. I don't see why he'd need us to do a favor for Undyne though."

As Frisk reached the lab, they turned and were about to head down to Waterfall, but you stopped them. "There's a monster who runs a ferry down to the south here," you told them, "they might be able to take you to Snowden."

Thankfully, you were still right (it had been ages since you and Asriel rode the ferry) and the ferrymonster was still there. "Oh hello small one," the monster said, "would you care for a ride to Waterfall or Snowden?"

Frisk smiled and asked, politely, "Snowden, please."

"Tra la la," the riverperson said, and their boat sped off magically. Within what seemed like moments, the three of year arrived in Snowden. As Frisk climbed out, the river person called to them, "Oh, child?"

Frisk looked, "Yes?"

"Beware the man who speaks in hands."

The monster turned and took off in their boat.

You felt something sink in the pit of your stomach, and you weren't sure why.

"What do you think that monster meant, Chara?" Frisk asked.

You shook your head and frowned. "I dunno, but it makes me feel really freaked out. We'll just need to be careful, okay?"

Frisk raised an eyebrow at you. "I didn't feel anything. I just thought maybe they were a bit nuts."

You chuckled nervously. "I just got this sinking feeling like I should know who it is. Let's just go see Undyne."

Frisk nodded, "Yeah, whatever she had sounds important."

You had both stepped only a few feet into town when you heard a yell, "WELL IF IT ISN'T MY VERY BEST HUMAN FRIEND, FRISK THE HUMAN CHILD! COME HERE!" Papyrus came barreling down the path towards Frisk, who in turn ran up to the tall skeleton and leapt into his arms.

"Papyrus!" Frisk shouted, laughing, "How's my great friend?"

You couldn't help but smile at the way Frisk brightened the day of anyone they met, yours included. You ran beside them as Papyrus carried Frisk on his shoulders, chatting about their day.

"FRISK, I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WERE ON METTATON'S SHOW!" Papyrus squealed, "AND YOU WAVED TO ME! HOW'D YOU KNOW I'D BE WATCHING!"

Frisk laughed, "Lucky guess, I suppose!"

You snickered. Two peas in a pod, the two of them. Papyrus set Frisk down in front of Undyne. Sans hung back on the porch of the house. You avoided looking at him; he still made you feel nervous, and you didn't know how he'd react to you after the whole MTT resort incident. There must have been a reason he ignored you at Frisk's judgment, right?

"Hey punk," Undyne greeted, "glad I caught you before you got to Asgore. I need you to take this to Doctor Alphys in Hotland."

Undyne handed Frisk a letter. "It smells vaguely of a musky perfume and sushi," you tell Frisk, cracking a grin. They giggled a bit.

"Undyne, what is this?" Frisk asked slyly.

"Hey, none of your business. And if you read it, I'll kill you," Undyne replied, with a giant smile on her face. "I'm counting on you kiddo!"

"YES FRISK, IT IS UP TO YOU TO DELIVER UNDYNE'S SUPER SECRET LOVE LETTER TO DOCTOR ALPHYS, CONFESSING ALL SORTS OF INTIMATE AND GROWN UP FEELINGS THAT SANS SAYS I'LL UNDERSTAND WHEN I'M OLDER!" Papyrus screamed so that most of Snowdin probably heard.

Frisk's jaw dropped and you fell on the ground, laughing. "Holy crap, I love this guy," you said to Frisk, who was giggling quite hard themselves. Undyne was busy making angry, gibberish noises in disbelief.

As you began walking out of Snowden, Frisk asked you, "Hey can we take the boat back to Hotlands? Why didn't we just take it in the first place?"

"It's usually only one way," You told them, "but every now and then you might catch him after dropping someone off. Let's check."

You lucked out, catching the river monster dropping off the Ice Wolf, and you both hitched a ride back to Hotlands. This time he gave no cryptic words, which made both of you sigh in relief as you arrived at Alphys' lab. Frisk tried to go in, but the door was locked. They looked to you, but you shrugged and suggested, "slide it under the door?"

Frisk nodded and did so. The pattering sound of clawed feet could be heard on the otherside of the door. "Oh no…is it another one?"

You and Frisk exchanged raised eyebrows. The sound of Alphys struggling to open the specially sealed envelope was heard. "Wait what is…OH MY ANIME, WHAT IS THIS?!"

The eyebrows that you and Frisk were giving each other managed to climb higher, believe it or not. Frisk snapped away as the door to the lab slid open. Alphys looked shocked to see Frisk standing there.

"D-did YOU write this?!" Alphys demanded to know.

Frisk froze up, and you could almost see the wheels turning in their head struggling with, "I'm still a little miffed you lied to me," versus, "I should play along with this so I can maybe free all of you from the underground." Finally, the latter won out as Frisk nodded and said, rigidly, "Why yes, I did indeed write that letter you just read."

"After what I did to you, you'd go on a date with me?!" Alphys cried.

You floated behind Alphys, and Frisk looked over her shoulder at you for support. You shrugged. "Let's play this out?"

"Yes," Frisk answered, struggling to keep a straight face.

Alphys laughed nervously. "W-well…okay, maybe this could be fun. W-wait right here!"

Alphys retreated to the lab.

"Only in the underground for a few days and I'm already on my second date!" Frisk boasted. You snickered.

Alphys emerged from the lab wearing a polka dot dress. "Alright Frisk! I'm ready for our date!"

"Dating start!" You shouted to Frisk.

"Oh wait, nevermind, I need to give you something, hold on!" Alphys yelled, running back into her lab.

"Uh…Dating Stop!" You said, and Frisk laughed.

Alphys remerged holding a few things. "DATING…START!" You yelled with finality.

"Here, I got you this magical spear repair kit!"Alphys said, proudly. "Perfect for hunting humans on the go!"

Frisk blinked. "Um…I don't have any magical spears. I don't hunt humans either."

Alphys turned bright red. "Oh…right, you couldn't use this. Well, try this!" Alphys pulled something else out from her purse, "This is a special wax especially for your…scales."

Frisk chuckled nervously. "Nope, I don't think I could make use of that either."

"Gee," you whispered to Frisk, "its almost like these gifts are really specific and for a particular person she had in mind."

Alphys rummaged through her purse one more time, "Well, how about this nice polish for your….Royal…Guard…Armor."

Frisk gave her a patient smile as she shoved the polish back into her bag. You rolled your eyes. "Oh goodness. She's worse than those two guards."

Alphys laughed rather awkwardly, "Well, um…I think for a date we need to go somewhere, don't we?"

Frisk nodded. "Sure, where should we go?"

"Come on Frisk," You chided, playfully, "you're the one asking her on a date, you're supposed to have the evening planned." Frisk stifled a giggle.

"I have an idea!" Alphys declared. "Let's go to the garbage dump! I always have a good time there and find the coolest stuff!"

"Uh…what?" Frisk asked, alarmed.

You whispered to Frisk, "Down here, the dump is where a lot of cool stuff washes down from the surface. It's actually not too bad."

Frisk took in what you said and gave Alphys a smile, "I mean, that sounds lovely!"

Alphys took Frisk to Waterfall, the two chatting about anime most of the way there.

As they arrived, Frisk looked around at some washed up video games and toys, and their face lit up. It made your stomach do flips. "Wow this place is pretty cool!" Frisk exclaimed. But they looked to Alphys, who looked a bit sad.

"Alphys, what's the matter?" Frisk asked.

"Yeah," you added, "She looks a little…down in the dumps?" You winked at Frisk after your bad joke, and you saw Frisk physically restraining themselves from laughing. You felt pretty proud of that one.

"Well…I'll be honest with you," Alphys sighed, "I went on this date to humor you. I thought it'd be fun. But who I really want to date is...Undyne?!"

Alphys began to freak out, but Frisk assured,"It's okay, I figured you like Undyne."

Alphys shook her head. "N-no! Undyne is coming! I can't let her see me on a date with you! Cover for me!"

Alphys took a leap into a garbage can before Frisk could say anything.

"Well that's a bit rude." You chuckled.

Frisk waved to Undyne, "hey!"

Undyne waved back. "Hey punk, have you seen Alphys! I need to talk to her about that letter. She's not at her lab."

Frisk tried, desperately, to stop themselves from looking at the trash can. "N-nope!" They struggled; clearly they were a bad liar, "haven't seen her at all!"

Undyne sighed. "Alright, thanks Frisk. Let me know if you find her." The Captain of the Guard ran off, suplexing washing machines along the way.

"Oh my god," Alphys squealed, hopping out of the can, "Undyne wrote the letter?! Frisk, why didn't you tell me?"

Frisk shrugged. "I don't know, seemed like a good idea at the time. Anyway, why don't you tell Undyne how you feel?" Frisk smiled, warmly, "it's not like there's any reason you two can't be together."

"There's no way I could tell Undyne how I feel." Alphys moaned, "there's no way she'd ever like me.

"Obviously let's roleplay it." You and Frisk blurted out at the same time. You blushed, and Frisk turned a bit pink too.

"I'll be you and you be Undyne, okay?" Frisk suggested.

Alphys giggled. "Ha… Okay sure! Ahem," Alphys puffed out her chest a bit, "Hey there punks, I'm Undyne, and I'm the toughest fish in the underground!"

You scratched your head. "Frisk, maybe you should have been Undyne."

Frisk, instead, winked at Alphys and said, "Hey Undyne, you're one hot hotbaby."

"WHAT?!" Screamed Alphys.

"What." You deadpanned.

"Want to come over and smooch my face?" Frisk added.

"Frisk!" Alphys squealed, "I could never just tell Undyne how hot I think she is and how much I would love for her to come over and smooch me while we watch anime – she's right behind me, isn't she?"

She had seen the look on Frisk's face go from laughter to panic, and Frisk nodded. Sure enough, Undyne had come running at the sound of Alphys' scream.

"Alphys…what did you say?" Undyne asked, stunned.

"Do we do anything?" Frisk asked to you, quietly.

"Uh," You pondered, "Let's just let this play out. Again."

"Undyne I just…" Alphys sighed. "It was hard for me to be honest with you. If I told you that when I was working, I was just watching cartoons in my pajamas, or that all my research on human history was really just watching anime, I was worried you wouldn't like me anymore."

You looked at Frisk, "Well at least now we know she's aware the comics aren't actual human history." Frisk discretely nodded back to you.

Undyne knelt down and hugged Alphys…and then picked her up and threw her into the garbage can. "ALPHYS! I DON'T CARE ABOUT THOSE THINGS!

"Y-You don't?" Alphys and Frisk asked.

"Doesn't care about being lied to a whole bunch?" You mused.

"I LIKE YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE PASSIONATE! YOU LIKE YOUR GEEK YSHOWS AND INVENTIONS WITH AN INTENSE, FIERY PASSION THAT I RESPECT! AND WE'RE GOING TO TRAIN YOU UNTIL YOU LIKE THOSE THINGS ABOUT YOU TOO!" Undyne screamed.

Alphys peaked out from the garbage can. "You're going to train me?!"

Undyne smiled her giant grin, "Nope!"

Papyrus leapt out from a pile of garbage that was behind you and Frisk. You screamed in surprise, and Frisk gave you a smirk that caused you to blush.

"I'm going to get Papyrus to train you instead!" Undyne crowed, proudly.

"COME ON, MS. SCIENTIST!" Papyrus yelled, "100 LAPS TO SWELL YOUR PRIDE! WE'LL SCREAM OF HOW GREAT WE BOTH OUR TO THE HEAVENS AS WE GO!"

With that, Papyrus picked up Alphys' trash can and ran off.

"Well then…" You began, but Undyne turned to Frisk and grabbed them by the shoulders.

"Frisk…you got to tell me…Anime is real, right?!"

Undyne was freaking out. Frisk glanced at you over her shoulders. You rubbed your chin. "Uh…yes?"

"Yes." Frisk repeated. "Anime is real."

Undyne lifted Frisk and hugged them tightly. It was actually fairly adorable. "Thanks, squirt! You've done so much for me! See you around!"

Frisk dusted themselves off as you walked up to them. "So, like I was saying," you said, "I think that went well, all things considered."

Frisk laughed, "I guess so. Now what?"

You shrugged. "Well. We're in Waterfall now, so let's head back to Hotland and go from there. Hopefully whatever Flowey is planning pans out."

Frisk waded through the garbage dump and past the snail farm once again. "Hey Chara?"

"Yeah Frisk?"

"Alphys and Undyne made a good point," they said, "hiding things and being all secretive…maybe we should stop that too?" They smiled their charming smile that made you feel weird inside, "maybe we don't need to keep things from each other anymore."

Your stomach sank. You agreed, sure, in principle, but could you tell them how you used to be? How angry you were?

You were saved by Frisk's phone ringing. "HELLO HUMAN," Papyrus shouted into the receiver, "I'VE JUST HAD THIS IDEA, COMPLETELY BY MYSELF, AND WITH NO INFLUENCE WHATSOEVER, THAT YOU SHOULD HEAD TO ALPHYS' LAB."

Papyrus hung up before Frisk could say another word.

"Hey," you said, "Remember Sans telling us how a yellow flower would whisper things to his brother?"

Frisk nodded, "I thought that too. Flowey's plan must be unfolding. Come on!"

Frisk took off running. You breathed a sigh of relief. How long could you keep this up?


	9. Truth and Timelines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You weren't prepared for this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Undertale belongs to Toby Fox

"Hello?" Frisk called out, stepping into the lab. This time Alphys has left the door open, but all the lights were off, just like the first time you had come there.

You looked around as Frisk checked the computer desk, and noticed a note on the floor by the bathroom. "Hey Frisk, come check this out."

Frisk walked over and frowned. "What's it say?"

You sometimes forgot that they couldn't read, since they were such a smart, resourceful person. "Oh. Right, it says that she's sorry for all the lies she's told her friends, and she can't…take living this way anymore?!" This type of note was sounding a little too familiar, and your voice became more alarmed. "Please go through the door to the north of this letter, and all will become clear."

Frisk gave you a worried look too. "I don't like the sound of that, Chara."

"Me either," you grimaced, "Let's go."

You both ran into the bathroom, and were surprised that it was actually an elevator. "Huh?" Frisk questioned, and then the elevator began to descend on its own, with no input from Frisk.

"Oh," you muttered, "this doesn't seem right."

Finally, the elevator dinged, the door opened, and the sound of humming machinery halted altogether as you were both plunged into darkness. "And the elevator lost power too," you sighed, "even better."

You both stepped out of the elevator and Frisk shivered. You didn't blame them; this place looked like every stereotypical creepy laboratory from movies and video games you could think of. Dimly lit, leaking ceiling, cracked walls and floors.

You floated up to the door in front of you and examined it. "No good," you advised, "it's locked."

You looked back at Frisk. They were shaking, hard. "Hey," You said, softly, "you okay, Frisk?"

They took a deep breath and nodded. "Y-yeah. This is just really creepy."

You nodded, but reassured, "Can't be as creepy as the giant vine Flowey, right? You can do it Frisk. I'm right here with you."

At these words, a SAVE Point spawned for Frisk, and they touched it. "You're right," they said, giving you a grin, "let's go!"

You looked at the main door in front of them. "This is locked, it says you need to put all the key cards in the correct receptors before it will open." You sighed, "Well that doesn't sound like a pain in the butt at all."

Despite the outward confidence Frisk had just displayed, both of you were very cautious as you went down the empty hall to the left. "Alphys?" Frisk called out, "We – I saw your note. Are you okay?"

As they explored the hallway, they came across a leaking faucet. Perhaps out of habit, or perhaps because the dripping noise was somewhat annoying, they walked over to twist the knobs off.

And while the water stopped, something else…didn't. Some white, gooey material rushed out of the sink, filling the basin to the brim, and then it looked at Frisk with multiple, black, gooey eyes.

You and Frisk screamed and wrapped your arms around each other as you were sucked into a battle. Once the alarm wore off, your arms went through Frisk again as usual. Frisk was being stared down by a floating, staticky white face above the sink.

Erratic, nonsensical bullets flew around Frisk, some not going near them, the rest Frisk dodged with ease.

The monster split into three and began speaking in gibberish to Frisk. It reminded you of Gaster. Suddenly, Frisk's cell phone began ringing. They pulled it out, and you read to them, "It says Memoryhead is calling? Is that what this monster is?"

Frisk answered, and the monsters voice, now translated yelled, "Come join us!"

"Um…No thank you!" Frisk yelled shaking their with a polite, yet nervous smile.

To your surprise, this seemed to pacify the, "memory heads," and they disappeared.

"…What the heck was that?!" Frisk cried to you.

You shrugged, equally confused. "Nothing like I've ever seen," you confessed, "let's find Alphys and get out of here!"

Frisk was about to leave down the stairs, but they noticed a small, red key card had been at the bottom of the sink. Quickly and cautiously, they snatched it from the basin and walked briskly down the stairs.

All that was down there was a small room with a little card-swiper machine. It was red. Instinctively, Frisk put the red key card in there, and you could hear something click from far down the hallway. The noise made you both jump. Frisk caught your eye as you both finished gasping and gave you a small, nervous laugh. "Hey, nothing to worry about, right? I bet that was just a door unlocking, we'll be out of this in no time, Chara!" They were talking at a mile a minute.

"Right," you agreed, "nothing to worry about at all." You weren't sure if you were trying to convince them or yourself.

As you trudged back down the hallway, little monitors would light up, and you'd stop to read them.

"What do they say?" Frisk asked.

You bit your lip. It was a bit creepy, but you figured you'd sum it up for Frisk. "Looks like lab notes from Alphys. They're out of order, but it sounds like Alphys had figured out – or maybe the first scientist figured it out and she picked it up from there, it's vague – that the reason human souls persist after death is from the power of determination."

"Maybe that's why your dad wasn't surprised when I told him that he had killed me," Frisk pondered, "He was aware of determination."

"Could be," you agreed, "never said anything about it when I was alive. Maybe that's how Sans knows too. Anyway, it sounds like they wanted to give monsters the power of determination, artificially created, to see if they could make them strong enough to break the barrier."

"How can you artificially create determination?" Frisk asked.

You shrugged. "Hey, I'm not a scientist. Probably has a lot to do with magic."

You made it back to the elevator. Frisk stopped at the elevator as their stomach rumbled, and looked at the vending machine. They dug around in their pockets for some change, and placed a small piece of gold in. A bag plopped out of the bottom.

"Looks like you got some – " You began, but Frisk cut you off.

"No!" Frisk said, "I think I can read this one."

You smiled at them, patiently. Frisk squinted and sounded out, "P…p..p-popato chisps?"

It was maybe the most adorable thing you'd ever heard in your entire life, and the giant smile on your face must have reflected it as Frisk blushed, "Oh, potato chips is what it says," they realized.

"Hey, that was a pretty good try!" You commended, "I bet you could learn pretty easy when this is done."

"Thanks," Frisk replied, popping the bag open and munching on their prize, "I wouldn't mind having a cute teacher like you."

You blushed hard, "L-let's just keep going."

You passed some more plaques, and summed them up for Frisk, "So, you probably don't know this," you explained, "but monsters rarely get sick. When they do, they call it, 'falling down,' so what they did was take these monsters who were near death, and Alphys injected them with determination. The plan was that after the monsters die, their souls would persist, and then Alphys could preserve them and see if they could be used against the barrier."

You both arrived at a room filled with nothing but beds.

"This is where the test subjects would sleep," you reasoned.

Frisk shuddered, "Should it…should it be empty like this?"

The thought hadn't struck you, but they were right. Where DID all the test subjects go? Why was this place so empty?

"Oh," Frisk moaned suddenly, grabbing their stomach, "I think those chips were old. Ooohhhh…"

"Uh oh, you okay?" You asked.

Frisk nodded, but was clearly in pain. "Yeah just…let me lay down a minute."

"Usually food made out of magic doesn't expire," you advised your friend, "but I guess it happens sometimes. I had that with mom's snail pies until I got used to the taste."

Frisk laid down on the bed and took a few deep breaths…and behind them, a large, ghost-like monster, made of the same gooey substance the Memory Heads had been made of, appeared behind Frisk.

"Frisk," you warned, voice growing sharp, "Don't. Move."

Frisk could sense the urgency in your words, and held their breath.

The monster sprouted an arm from it's body, protruding from the center of it's chest, and it hovered over Frisk.

"Stay still, Frisk," you whispered, bracing yourself.

But then…the monster grabbed the blanket at the bottom of the bed and tucked Frisk in. They patted Frisk on the head and then disappeared.

You were speechless. After a few moments, Frisk whispered, "Is it gone?!"

"Y-yeah." You stammered.

Frisk rolled out of bed and let out a sigh of relief. "What was that? I mean it was nice of it to tuck me in and all but yikes. Scary."

"It might be best if we don't talk about it." You laughed nervously. It looked like a giant, white, slimy ghost; probably not the thing you want tucking you in at night.

Frisk got the gist of it though, and went to look at one of the other beds. Tucked under one of the pillows was a yellow key card. "When you were telling me to hold all still, I saw another one of these poking out. So I mean, lucky break, huh?"

You nodded. "So which way now? Down the hallway with the mirrors or down some more stairs?"

Frisk pondered for a minute. "Mirrors."

"What?" You shouted, "mirrors in a lab seem way creepier. Like those carnival fun houses. "

"I have a thing about basements," Frisk replied with a nervous laughter.

"Ah…well…okay." You said, giving them a small smile. You didn't want to push the matter further.

"It's a long story," Frisk said, "maybe once we're out of this lab or back on the surface we can sit down and tell each other these long stories we keep putting off."

You were about to say something in agreement, when you noticed one of the Frisk's in the mirror staring at Frisk. It morphed into some sort of bird like monster and lunged at Frisk. "Look out!" you cried, and Frisk leapt forward, just barely dodging the amalgate.

As you were sucked into the battle, what looked like a Stigmatism was where the bird's head was, forming an odd beak. "I don't…I don't know what that is," you said to Frisk, scared, "I'm sorry."

"H-hello!" Frisk greeted, trying to put on their best cheerful smile.

In response, the bird-like monster spoke in about ten different voices, all at once, and a swarm of bullet-moths descended upon it's head, eating it.

"AH!" Frisk shrieked, "What's wrong with you?!"

That was the first time you had heard Frisk say anything relatively negative about a monster. The eyelike-beak of the monster seemed sad, however. Frisk seemed to catch themselves, took a deep breath, and continued trying to talk it down.

"I'm sorry," Frisk apologized, "that was rude of me. I hope you are okay?"

In place of the monsters head…another one grew. And grew. And more kept growing and began shooting themselves at Frisk, who began dodging left and right. "P-please let this monster be okay!" they prayed, near hysterics.

When the monster stopped attacking, Frisk panted, and looked around. "Hey!" They yelled, "Look over there! A distraction!"

Mystified, the bird monster spun around, and Frisk used the opportunity to run to the other end of the hallway and duck back into the bedroom.

"I want to go home." Frisk cried, "I want to go home, I want to go home, I don't want to be in this creepy lab anymore."

They were sitting on one of the beds, knees tucked to their chest. You bit your lip; they hadn't been like this since that time they accidentally killed Mom. "Hey come on," you encouraged, "we can do this. If anything bad happens, we can always RESET, remember? I won't leave your side, I promise."

Frisk took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah. O-okay Chara. We can do this."

A SAVE point appeared by the stairs. Frisk touched it and went down the stairs. You read a few more of the panels. "Well, from these," you said, "the subjects of the determination experiments just got up like nothing happened. So Alphys wasn't able to gather any souls, but she was going to send all the monsters home."

Frisk smiled. "Well that sounds like a happy ending for everyone."

You nodded, but then looked at the next panel. "O-oh."

Frisk looked at you and frowned. "I know that word. 'No no no no NO!'"

You both exchanged raised eyebrows and moved a little bit closer together as you walked down the hallway. A fork came out up; right or straight. Frisk nodded to the right, and you both walked down another hallway.

Frisk gasped at what was at the end; there was a shower, not connected to a bathroom or anything. But the thin curtain revealed a giant, wiggling tentacle dancing behind the curtain.

You looked at each other. "What do we do?!" You whispered.

Frisk began slowly inching towards the shower, holding a finger up to shush you. "Frisk, no!" You squealed.

The suspense was killing you, and Frisk seemed to slow down more and more the closer they came to the curtain. In contrast, the tentacle…THING started gyrating spastically and frantically the closer Frisk seemed to get to the shower. Finally, Frisk's fingers grasped the shower curtain, yanked it back violently, and automatically screamed. You, in turn screamed, and your screams turned into a confused, panicked laughter as the shower revealed…nothing.

Nothing was there. You walked up to Frisk and looked in the empty shower.

"Just a shower drain," you assured, laughing nervously. Frisk laughed too, clearly feeling silly. Then, they noticed a green keycard in the drain, and they quickly swiped and walked away as fast as they could without actually running.

You both came to a room with a massive, skull like machine in the middle. "What is that?!" Frisk asked.

You looked at a sign over the gap in the floor separating the machine from the walkway. "Determination extractor?"

You both looked to each other and shuddered.

Frisk made their way to a room with a TV and a pile of VHS tapes in front. There was a note by them, "For research, I looked at some old lab tapes that were in the castle," You read aloud to Frisk, "I don't think Asgore has seen them." You paused, a bit alarmed at the last sentence, but read, "I don't think he should…"

Frisk raised an eyebrow and popped in the first tape.

At first, there was no picture, but voices came from the screen. It was Mom and Dad!

"King Fluffybuns, wake up!"

You and Frisk chuckled at the tape. Mom and Dad were discussing bad puns about being parents. This was before Asriel was born. You had always wondered what they had been like before then.

The tape ended. Frisk popped in the one labeled two.

Your heart sank as voices came out of the next one.

"Okay Chara," Came Asriel's voice through the monitor. Your heart broke. "You ready? Do the creepy face! AHHHH!"

You heard laughter coming from both of you on the tape.

"Oh shoot," Asriel said, "I left the lens cap on. What?! You won't do it again. Quit tricking me Chara!"

The tape ended. Frisk turned to you, "Aw! You guys sound adorable. Let's watch more."

"N-no," you stammered.

Frisk was puzzled. "Don't you want to see more times you and your brother had."

You hesitated, and in that moment, Frisk popped in the third tape.

"Smile for the camera, Chara!" Asriel's voice poured through the speakers.

Your heart was racing and panic pounded in your skull. No no no no!

"HA! I left the lens cap on! On purpose! You're smiling for no reason!"

"Hey Azzy," You heard your own voice say, "Remember when dad got sick?"

"Oh yeah," Asriel replied, "when we tried to make him a butterscotch pie? And we used buttercups instead of cups of butter? Mom was so mad! I should have laughed if off like you did."

"I laugh when I'm worried," you snapped back on the screen. This was true; handling emotions was not your strong point.

"Why do you bring it up?" Asriel asked.

"Turn off the camera." Your voice quipped on the screen, and the tape ended.

"Frisk," you pleaded, "please stop."

Frisk was confused. "Why? And what were you guys talking about?"

"Frisk, I can't tell you," you begged, "Just stop."

Frisk looked hurt, "I thought we weren't keeping secrets anymore."

Frisk popped in another tape, and yours eyes began to water.

"Chara," Asriel's voice came through the TV, "I don't like this."

"Azzy," you commanded through the camera, and you remembered that you had put on your best older-sibling-comfort voice for this, "big kids don't cry. Remember, we're going to be heroes, just like we would always talk about." You had switched to a feigned-hurt voice, "You aren't doubting me, are you?"

"Y-yeah!" Asriel said, "We'll free everyone! And I could never doubt you Chara. I'll go get the buttercups."

The tape ended, and you were crying. You knew what was next. You cried from the memories, from this sudden confrontation of your past, from the realization that you manipulated your brother into this plan. And when you saw the look of alarm and confusion on Frisk's face, you cried more.

With a shaky hand, Frisk popped in the last tape.

This one, Asriel remembered to take the lens off without mom or dad knowing. It was a shot of you, on your bed, Mom and Dad at your side. You looked away, you had relived this memory in your head enough times.

"Chara, can you hear me?" You heard Mom beg.

"Chara!" Dad said, through tears, "You had to stay determined. You are the future of monsters and humans! You can't give up…"

They walked away sobbing, and Asriel walked up to you, "Psst…Chara…wake up. I don't like this plan anymore."

Your body, on the screen, did not move.

"No," Asriel said to themselves, "I said I'd never doubt you. Six? It was just six? We'll take six human souls, together. And we'll free everyone."

The tape ended.

Silence hung in that room for minutes. You cried and shook, unable to look at Frisk. You wanted them to say something, anything, to let you know they were still there and that it was okay.

But no words came.

Finally, you mustered the courage to look up at them. And the tears came back, because Frisk was looking at you with sad, hurt eyes. Eyes that felt betrayed, and eyes that were scared. It was the same look they had given you days before in the Ruins.

"Frisk…" you sobbed.

Frisk turned and looked at the door. "You lied to me."

"Frisk, no," You begged, but you didn't have any explanation.

"No, what was that?!" Frisk shouted, and you noticed they were holding back tears too. "After all the things I heard about in New Home? And it turns out it wasn't true?!"

"It was…it was our story," you sniffled, lamely.

"Well you sure knew how to tell a good one!" Frisk yelled, quivering, "I certainly believed you were just this poor kid who got sick and…and…"

Frisk was crying, and you knew you messed up.

"Frisk, let me…" you lost the words in your throat.

"You were going to kill six people!" Frisk shouted," You pushed your brother into it. Would you have even stopped at six?"

"I…I don't know." You replied honestly.

Frisk sniffled and rubbed their eyes. "You…you're a monster."

You sobbed. "Frisk, no, please…"

"NO!" Frisk yelled, "you lied to me, you lied to your brother, you're a monster! Look what you did to your poor parents! You put them all through this! You k...you killed yourself and tore them apart! Just...just leave me alone! Go back to your patch of flowers."

You were bawling, for lack of a better term. "No, Frisk, let me explain, please!"

"No. Forget it." Frisk said, and ran out of the room. You got up to chase them, but they were faster than you. You felt the sluggishness creeping up on you, but you tried to push through and ran after them .But outside of the room, Frisk stopped and screamed at you. You had never heard them scream like that before.

"LEAVE ME ALONE, CHARA!"

The haziness over took you, even though you were right by Fisk. You blinked a few times, but could only see blackness around you.

"F-Frisk?" You called out, into nothingness.

After a few moments, you snapped back to Frisk. They were in a battle with a scary monster. There was a scent of lemons around.

Frisk dodged some magic teeth and scowled at you. You could tell they had still been crying. "Get. Out. Of. Here!"

You were sucked back into a black void. "FRISK!" You yelled.

You wandered the black void, crying, calling for your partner. Finally, you were beside them again, but you still felt hazy like you were being sucked back into the void. They were crouching before a large, doglike monster with way too many legs and a hole where its face should have been.

"Frisk," you pleaded, still feeling dizzy from your trips in and out of the void, "I'm sorry. Use…your stick, I think it's a dog."

You grabbed your head. The room felt like it was spinning.

Frisk gave you a concerned look, but then you could almost see them remember their anger. "CHARA, GO AWAY!" They yelled, and dog monster cowered itself.

You slipped back into the void once more. You stumbled around. Frisk. You had to find Frisk. They had to understand. It was all you wanted.

But this was different. No matter how hard you tried, you could not escape the blackness of the voice.

You did not find Frisk. But, someone found you.

"Hello again, child," called a voice from behind you. You whipped around.

"Oh…hey Gaster," you replied, "I don't suppose you could help me find Frisk again, could you?"You were doing your best to hide the sadness in your voice, and failing.

Gaster rubbed his bony chin, "If you were from any other timeline, possibly."

You raised an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean?"

Gaster let out a low chuckle. "Something terrible has happened to me, child."

You didn't realize it, but that would probably explain why you only ever saw this guy in this black void. "You used to be the Royal Scientist, right? What happened?"

Gaster waved a hand, and a strange bubble of light appeared in front of you. You could see Gaster, with a fully formed skeleton body as opposed to the odd black cloak-like body you saw before you, and he was working on a machine in the CORE. It looked like this was quite some time ago.

Suddenly, a blast from a steam vent knocked the past-Gaster into the abyss far below. The bubble disappeared.

Gaster sighed, "You see, trying to harness the power of the CORE was an endeavor that I was honored to take from his highness. However, I underestimated it's power. You see, the CORE is not only the center of the Underground it is the center of multiple, separate dimensions and timelines."

You blinked. "You're losing me here, Doc."

Gaster laughed, curtly, "What if I told you, for every decision you and Frisk made, there was an alternate universe where you made the opposite decision?"

Your eyes widened. "Whoa. Trippy."

Gaster nodded, "you see, when I fell into the CORE, I was scattered across all time and space. I can see all the possible timelines, I can see all the RESETS, all the choices…all the deaths."

You shivered. You weren't sure if you liked where this was going.

"Do you recall, not long ago, in Snowdin, Frisk let you take control of their body to partake in an ice cream treat with you?" Gaster questioned.

You smiled. The memory made you feel warm inside. "Of course! That was very nice of Frisk. Meant a lot to me."

But Gaster wasn't asking for sentimental reasons. "And what would happen if you hadn't given their body back so easily?"

Another light bubble appeared. You were watching yourself now, in the bubble, sitting in Frisk's body, eating the ice cream. Frisk, now a ghost themselves, was sitting outside their body. This time, when the version of you finished the ice cream. You stood up and stretched. Frisk looked a bit puzzled. Sans walked over, just like he had when you had been there. But before the skeleton could speak, you, in Frisk's body, struck him across the head with gloved hand. Sans, in shock, turned into dust.

"I don't want to see this," you told Gaster, trying to keep your voice from shaking.

"This is but one of the many timelines that run concurrent to this one," Gaster responded.

"But that…" You did your best to find the right words, "That's not me. That's not what happened. I would never do that to Frisk."

Gaster said nothing, but changed the vision in the bubble. You and Frisk were back in the Ruins in this vision. It was your first encounter with the Froggit. This time, Frisk didn't stop you from attacking, and you killed the Froggit in one shot with that branch. Frisk cried out in horror, and you were looking at your own satisfied smirk in the vision.

You shuddered. You had really been an angry ghost, but seeing it from this angle made you really relieved that Frisk had stopped you. Or at least, had in this timeline. So you told Gaster, "But Frisk stopped me!" You brow furrowed, "They showed me….they showed me I was wrong."

Gaster smiled at you, so you continued. "I was wrong when I was so angry as a ghost. It's not the monsters fault for wanting to have hope when I fell."

"Oh?" Gaster asked, "What else were you wrong about, little one."

You bit your lip and answered, "And I was wrong about humans. I never really knew there were good humans…until I met Frisk. What does this have to do with these timelines?"

Gaster changed the vision, "Here's another timeline. This actually continues from the one I just showed you. Here, you never learned your lesson. In this one, you controlled every fight Frisk had. You made them kill every monster you could find."

You shuddered at the thought. You had seen Frisk when they accidentally killed Mom, and worse when they were forced to fight Dad. That would devastate them. "A…all of them?"

Gaster's smiled curved upwards even more. "All of them. The Queen. Undyne. Mettaton. My youngest son, Papyrus. You became so consumed with revenge, young one, that you killed the Underground."

In the vision, Frisk was in the judgment hallway, facing Sans. And this time, Frisk was permanently outside their body, sobbing uncontrollably. You were fully in control, even outside of the fight. Frisk's appearance had even started to resemble yours; they had become paler and their eyes widened a bit to look like yours. Frisk's ghost begged you, but you got into a fight with Sans. Promptly, Sans destroyed you with a combination of blue magic, complicated bone attacks, and weird wave-motion guns. However, you just RESET and kept going.

The whole time in this vision, Frisk was sobbing, and begging you to please go back to the beginning, to please stop. It broke your heart.

"I don't want to see this!" You said, more firmly.

"You must," Gaster snapped.

You watched. It went on for a long time. Sans, tougher than he looked, kept killing you. But you lasted longer every fight. You learned his attack pattern. And every time you came back to life, he became more and more tired.

Finally, you stabbed the small skeleton with a knife, making him erupt into a pool of dust and ketchup. Frisk collapsed to the floor to mourn, and you, in their body, laughed at them.

You shook, angry with this alternate version of you.

"Why do I need to see this?!" You yelled, holding back tears of your own. "I wouldn't do that to Frisk! They're…they're the best thing that's ever happened to me."

"You see child," Gaster explained, "there are only two timelines where I can not see how they end. The one I just showed you…"

Gaster made the bubble vanish and finished, "and the one you hale from."

"Then mine is the true timeline," you insisted, "because I've learned. That's not who I am."

Gaster gave you an odd, somewhat scary smile. "I want to believe that. But even in this timeline, you've managed to betray Frisk, haven't you?"

You looked to your feet, ashamed. "I shouldn't have lied to them, no. But," You loo clenched your fist and grit your teeth to the scientist, "I can't give up yet. If Frisk can be this determined to save everyone, I'm determined I can get them to hear me out. Maybe they won't forget me, but they'll know why I was the way I used to be, and know how much I care for them."

Gaster clapped his hands together. "Well then, you have work to do, don't you?"

You could fell yourself leaving the void. But you looked to Gaster, with a raised eyebrow. "Why are you helping me?"

Gaster gave you a smile…but something about it made you feel cold inside. "Oh…you will understand in time, child."

You blinked a few times and found yourself back in the lab, once again. Frisk was back in the lab, back to the wall as amalgations were approaching them. They didn't see that they were about to back into one as well.

"Frisk look out!" You shouted, running up to them . They were surprised to see you, but before they could dodge, you heard Alphys' voice yell out from the door way, and the lights kicked on, "HEY! I brought you guys some food, calm down!"

Alphys was carrying a half-full bag of dog food. The amalgations immediately ran off back into the lab, to your surprise.

"So uh…" Alphys stammered, "I see you've found out the truth."

The choice of words seemed almost a little ironic. Frisk nodded, avoiding looking at you.

"I…I'm sorry about all of this, Frisk." Alphys said with a sigh. "I'm going to stop lying. I mean I'm not worried about these guys, they're harmless."

Frisk raised their eyebrows but said nothing. You don't blame them; Alphys had something of an odd definition of harmless.

"I have friends, and they… they deserve to know the truth." Alphys frowned and left the lab.

After some awkward silence, Frisk walked past you without saying a word. "Frisk, I'm sorry too," you started, but they didn't stop walking. Before you could say anything else, their phone rings.

No name pops up, and an odd string of numbers is the only thing on the phone screen. Possibly because Frisk doesn't know how to read the word, "unknown," they answered, "Hello?"

"Chara!" The voice on the receiver said, ecstatically, making both of you jump. "I'm going to see you soon. I can't wait!"

The receiver clicks. The voice seemed a bit familiar, but you couldn't place your finger on it, so you shrugged when Frisk gave you a questioning look. Frisk went to stop onto the elevator, but you reach out and grab their hand, surprising the both of you.

"Frisk," You said, "I'm sorry I lied to you. I knew that I've done some terrible things, and I was worried that if you knew about the type of person I was, you wouldn't like me anymore. You're the only human friend I've ever had and," you turned a deep crimson, but you didn't let that stop you, "I care about you so much."

Frisk turned a bit pink themselves. "I understand, but I just want to know why. Why would you give up such a wonderful family?"

You gulped. There was no turning back. "You might want to sit down. Because the only way I can tell you is if I tell you why I jumped into the mountain in the first place."

Their eyes widened, but they nodded and respectfully sat against the wall. To your relief, they patted the ground next to them, and you sat down too.

'Once upon a time…"


	10. My Past and Yours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They deserve to know the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox

You were born in a remote village, just a few miles on the outskirts of Mt. Ebott. Despite the technological advances of the world around you, the cult your village was founded around preferred things the old fashioned way – swords and bows to guns, horseback to cars, and unfortunately, midwives to an actual hospital.

Your birth was not an easy one. You learned from your older sister that the complications were unforeseen, and despite the efforts of the town doctor – if you could call the old badger that – there was nothing they could do to save your birthmother.

Death in childbirth was considered a bad omen for this village. After all, giving birth was blessing, so why would something like that happen unless the child themselves were bad? So children who survived when their mothers didn't were considered to be demon children. You fell snugly into this category – born into the world with a kill count on your head, and the scorn of the village.

Now, these children were supposed to be raised like the normal children, and that through the teachings of the cult and their gods they worshiped, could be redeemed into good, worthy children. However, the label follows one around for their whole life. What's more, raising children was considered, "women's work," so your birth father was daunted and shunned for not only spawning a monster, but also for having to take over the task of child-rearing. Not alone though, you had a ten year old sister, Suzy, who was abruptly yanked from childhood to be, "promoted to parent."

Father, who, like all the other men in the cult, took pride in their masculinity, was shamed and bitter about things. For the first few years of your life, your memories weren't too bad; Suzy and Father did their best, and you would go to the commune park to play with other kids. Nothing was out of the ordinary, until you started going to the community school.

It was something out of the past; kids of all ages went to the same school and usually there weren't too many teachers. So you were in a class with kids ages five to nine, all learning different things, mostly the teaching of the gods worshiped by this cult, the evils of the modern world, how to read, how to write, math, and whatever sciences didn't conflict with the cults teachings.

It was here that word got out about how you used to be – from the teacher, no less. They made it clear one day, when you were looking out the window, that you of all people needed to pay attention to the teachings, lest you be a demon forever. Whispers went out among the crowd of children, and your teacher proudly announced, "Oh yes class, Chara is the town demon child. Poor mother never stood a chance, did she?"

She got down write in your face when she said, "So you listen good, or you'll burn in hell with the rest of your kind." Her ruler went down against your knuckles, and you cried out in pain, but she was already back to teaching.

Now kids can be cruel, and the older ones wasted no time making sure you learned that lesson too. The ones your age wouldn't go near you, and sat and watched as your were pummeled by the bigger kids. You would come home every day covered in dirt and scrapes, and Father never asked. Suzy would clean you up.

One day, you worked up the nerve to ask Suzy, "Am I demon?"

Suzy might not have been the best one to ask. Being forced to grow up at ten doesn't exactly leave you happy with your lot in life, so she just nodded as she would clean you up. "Yes, Chara. You are a demon child who took mama away from us. That's what daddy says. That's what the preacher says too."

In tears, you asked Father if you were a demon. He just responded by drunkenly smacking you across the face. You see, despite all the forbidden things in the village, alcohol was not among them, unfortunately.

Maybe it wasn't easy for Father either. He would get dirty looks when he dropped you off at school, and he lost most of his friends, save for five who would come over once every few weeks and drink with him. But, beating your kid – and then having your friends do it because you were too drunk and tired – there is no excuse for that.

You learned pretty quick to keep to yourself at school. You focused on your work, and learning to read. The kids still picked on you, but you made sure to keep yourself in the background so they'd overlook you as much as possible.

Things at home, however, never got better. As you got older, Father just resented you more and more. Once you were old enough to cook, clean, and whatever, it was expected that you would do that full time.

"You took your mama away, you can fill her shoes, you little demon shit," your Father slurred one night, after coming come and finding out you didn't have dinner ready.

"Dad, Chara's eight." Suzy replied, dryly.

Father just hit her across the mouth too. "Then you teach the little monster."

So you took on the responsibilities of your household. You learned to cook. You learned to clean. You learned to bake. You fell behind in school too, which your teacher just would then announce that, "Chara could not be bothered to learn about our ways, and is giving in to the demon inside them." This made you really popular on the playground. Days became a cycle of school, getting your butt kicked by the other kids, coming home, cooking, getting your butt kicked by Father, and cleaning up.

You made a resolution to yourself, at about nine, that no one – Father, the other kids, Suzy, the teachers – none of them would ever see you cry again. Your emotions had already began to dull over time, so you turned them off.

"CHARA!" Your Father called one night.

You were in the middle of cooking some ground beef on the stove. "Hold on, got some food cooking here."

Something about this response set him off, so he stormed into the kitchen and threw the skillet onto the floor.

"Father, the food." You replied, robotically. He didn't answer you, but he grabbed your hand and pressed it onto the still lit oven. You cringed and held in a scream. You did not allow yourself to cry.

Surprised, he pulled your hand back and looked at the burns that were already forming blisters. "Yeah, that didn't feel good, did it?"

You shook your head. "No Father." You quietly turned off the stove, just in case.

"Listen, you little demon: You come when I call your name, got it?" He growled.

"Yes, Father."

"No, demon, you say it."

You gulped. "I – I am the demon that comes when it is called."

"Don't sass me. And smile once in awhile, will you?" Father growled.

You robotically curled your lips into a smile. Asriel called it the creepy smile, because even though your mouth was the right shape, your eyes were empty and shiny.

Father didn't much like it either. "…creep."

Sometimes at night, tears would happen when no one else was around. But other than that, you had done a good job putting a mute button on your emotions. Still, it was a miserable life. Even Suzy, who would patch you up after a rough day at school, barely tolerated your existence, and she didn't pass up the opportunity to tell you that you ruined her life, too.

At ten, you needed outlets. Turns out repressing your feelings was beginning to make you a rather angry person. You stopped being able to sleep. So at night, you would sneak out and go to the neighboring town a mile down the road. There, you could take things out on the trash cans in the back alley and no one cared. One night, you lost control, and threw a can right through a store window. Alarms began to blare, and you went to leave, but something caught your eye; books. With colorful covers and flashy words, you grabbed them and took off running before anyone saw you.

Something about the experience had been exciting; you had stolen some books, and gotten away with it. And it wouldn't be the first time. You found you liked books; they gave you an escape, and the heroes in the stories usually had things work out better.

And of course, the kids at school found ways to pick on you about this, too.

"Hey, Demon Chara, sitting all alone practicing your witchcraft?"

You looked up at the boy. Twelve maybe, flanked by two of his friends. You looked back at your book, rolling your eyes.

Your book was snatched away though. "What's this, Chara? Harry Potter? This isn't allowed in school, you really are reading about witchcraft." A slow smile spread across the boy's face, "Miss Rose is going to beat you in front of the whole class."

Something snapped in you. You put on your empty, glass-eyed smile and looked at the boy. "That's right, Thomas. I'm going to learn the ways of magic and burn your house down."

"What did you say?!"

You didn't want to wait for the usual playground trash talk. You grabbed the boy by the throat, smiled wider, and headbutt him. Your forehead smashed the boys nose, leaving a trickle of blood that ran down your face. It was pretty gross, but you didn't break your smile, despite the haziness of your vision from the headbutt and blood in your eyes.

You got beaten pretty hard by your teacher, and harder by Father that night. But that just made you angrier. You couldn't strike back against the adults, but taking it out on Thomas was fun, and it felt good to blow off some steam.

The cycle began. Soon, you were becoming the aggressor in these playground incidents. Starting fights to relieve your anger, then getting beaten for it and being told you were an evil being bound for hell. One day, you came home once again, with a note from the principal in your hand, blood on your face, bruised knuckles, and shirt in tears. Father looked at you, sighed, and turned back to his bottle of scotch; he had long since abandoned the need for a glass when he was drinking. He was playing cards with his friends too, which was never a good sign for you.

"One again, my kid comes through the door." Father swirled the drink in the bottle, "Looking like a torn, beat up piece of garbage."

Silence hung heavy. Finally, Father whipped the almost-empty bottle of booze at your head. His aim was off; he only got your cheek, and the bottle smashed against the wall.

"Get out of my sight, you little shit." His voice was different. He sounded resigned.

He'd never thrown a bottle at you before. You were scared. For a minute you almost started crying. He glanced at you again, and saw you trembling there. "NOW!" He screamed.

You ran up the stairs. Fear coursed through your veins. Something about what he was doing was different. You had a sinking feeling, listening to the whispers from downstairs. What would they do to you?!

You looked for comfort in your books, but you had read them all, and when you tried to read a page, your anxiety made the words jumble together. Your chest tightened. Books. More books. You would sneak out, and get more books.

You hopped out the window, not bothering to be quiet; they were too drunk. Still feeling panicky, the run to town was hazy and blurred. You found yourself at the general store; you had to change what store you stole from sometimes, otherwise they'd know. You found a brick, and you aren't sure where it even came from. You threw it through the window, and dove inside, grabbing the first book you could see in a daze. You stumbled out of the store, and to your horror, you could see blue and red sirens blaring.

If Father wasn't already going to kill you, getting caught by the police would give him more incentive.

You ran. You ran until your chest hurt, you ran until your legs felt wobbly. There were woods. There was some climbing. You didn't notice much about where you were going. When your senses came back to you, you were on the footpath to Mt. Ebott, finally at the summit.

You'd heard the legends, but never given them much thought. Stories of monsters abducting people, or people disappearing off the trail without a trace. But you realized they were potentially darker; subjects you read about in the more mature books you had stolen. People maybe came up here so that they wouldn't have to go back. Maybe to make sure that they wouldn't come back.

You saw the pit in front of you. You'd never heard of a pit in the center of Mt. Ebott. But it was curious; the only thing before you and a drop straight down was a rickety, "Danger," sign.

You didn't think about it much. But; you didn't have anything to go back to. You didn't want to go back. You had no one to go back for. So, you…fell.  
\------------------------------------------------  
You had been staring at your knees the whole time you were telling the story to Frisk. You didn't look at them. But, suddenly, and you weren't sure how, you felt Frisk's head lean against your shoulder. Some moisture hit you too; they were crying. They were crying for you, and that filled you with guilt. You did not feel worth their tears.

"I'm sorry, Chara," Frisk whispered.

You shifted, uncomfortably, "Frisk…it's okay."

"It's not okay!" Frisk yelled, making you jump. That rare anger they would display always shocked you. "You don't hurt someone. You don't hurt your own kid."

"I was a demon-" You began, but Frisk cut you off. They wrapped you up in a hug, and squeezed. Hard.

"No, shut up Chara!" They squeaked. You chuckled a bit; it was cute and unexpected coming from them. "You're not a demon! I don't EVER want to hear you call yourself that again."

"Frisk," You said, quietly, "You knew what I wanted to do. I'm a monster. I – "

You were silenced by a pair of lips crashing into yours. A million of those feelings you had never felt before went spiraling throughout your body; that feeling of your insides doing flips exploded through your finger tips, you felt a little lightheaded, and your face turned bright red.

"Stop it!" Frisk insisted, pulling away, "You need to stop. I know what you did. And it was wrong. Don't…don't think that I'm saying that it's not wrong. Okay? But…I get it."

You didn't say anything; you couldn't. Mostly because you were still blown away. Is that what human kissing was?! Was that your first kiss?! Does it count if you're dead?!

"Chara, I threw myself down the mountain too. It…I mean, what happened to you messed you up a bit." They gave a small, bitter laugh. "No offense."

"None taken," you replied, smiling.

"The truth is, Chara," Frisk sighed, "I'm messed up too."

"Frisk, what are you doing?" You asked.

"Let me tell you my story too," Frisk insisted.

"You…you don't have to." You replied, shaking a bit.

"No, no…I want to." Frisk gave you their smile, so you stopped talking. They rested their head on your shoulder.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For as long as I can remember, I had lived in this orphanage. I don't know who my birth parents were, or why they decided to leave me there; the orphanage told all the kids that, "your parents loved you but they just weren't able to take care of you." I had, at some point, stopped believing this when I realized that's just the story every kid was fed. 

I had learned at a fairly young age that adopting children was a lot like when people get pets: everyone tends to want a puppy first. Barring that, they wanted one with the same skin color first, and one with no health issues, and a million other things that can be crossed off a check list. Once you get a few years on you, and your complexion makes it hard for anyone to tell what sort of background you have, you'd get overlooked.

I was only six or seven when I had accepted that this was my home. I was not special like of the other kids; the babies who were out of there usually quickly, the kids who had a remarkable talent that could be displayed on the walls or on the old piano, the kids who weren't shy and awkward; they were all special. They all got picked first and foremost. I can't remember ever getting much more than a second glance. So the next few years, I learned to stop hoping for anyone to take me in.

"Frisk," the old nun who watched all the kids told me, "you can't expect anyone to adopt you if you don't put yourself out there more. Be nice! Smile! Compliment them!"

I don't remember how many times Sister Rosemary told me that. More than I could ever count. But it wasn't that easy. Still, I had some sort of ideas of how compliments worked. And I had no problem being nice to the little kids; they kind of looked up to me. I was that older sibling they always wanted, up until they were adopted and got real siblings. Then there was no need for Frisk.

I just locked up when couples came to the center to look. Like when I had to ask Toriel to leave; I crack a little bit under pressure.

One day, an older man and his wife came in and were looking around. They gave me polite smiles and asked how I was. I panicked! I know it sounds silly, but what are you supposed to say? "Please take me home, all I've ever wanted was a family?" That just reeks of desperation. 

So instead, I said the first thing that came to my mind: "Hey handsome, you looking for a good time? You should take me home, I'm lots of fun!"

I'm not sure what about what I said wrong, but the two of them left in a huff. Sister Rosemary ran up to me and asked where I learned that. So I told her, "There are some ladies who always hang out outside my window at night, and I hear them say that to older guys all the time! They all seem to get along great."

I changed rooms that night, and it took me awhile to understand why. Yeah. Smooth, Frisk.

I did learn though, that flirting and compliments were fun. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar, and I was able to make more friends with the other kids if I could tell them they were cute or make them smile. And they would get so happy! I really liked making the other kids happy. If I could make someone feel good, even for just a few moments, then maybe that's what was special about me? I did learn things that were…more appropriate for my age of course.

One day, something…weird happened. A couple came in, like they tend to do, a younger man and his wife. They couldn't be older than their late twenties. The woman seemed rather unemotional as her husband looked around.

"What do you think, honey?" I heard the man ask that at least fifty times. Every time, his wife answered, "I don't know honey," and gave a fake smile. I could tell the smile was fake, I'd rehearsed a million for the couples who came in. I guess you get good at spotting them when you do that.

So anytime these two looked at a kid, I noticed the wife would find some sort of objection, "they're a little young dear, do you think our busy work schedules would let us take care of a baby?" Or, "Sweetie, they just got through potty training, moving might make them have a lot of accidents." Some of them got more arbitrary sounding, but they kept looking. At some point, the lady dropped her purse on a table, and they walked off without.

I grabbed the purse of course, and tugged on the lady's sleeve, making them both jump.

"Pardon me," I said, with my best polite attitude, "you must have dropped this miss." I remembered what the Sister had said, and added, "pretty bag for a pretty lady!"

"Aw!" She cooed, "what a charmer this one is!"

The man laughed, "And what's your name?"

"Frisk!" I exclaimed; I'm not going to lie, I was excited. This was the best a talk with any of the adults who came in had ever gone.

Their name's were James and Janet, and within a few weeks, they adopted me. I guess the pet analogy was more accurate than I'd like; because while James thought I was a riot, Janet's favorite quality about me was that I was, "low maintenance." Good descriptor for a cat, not a kid.

Their house was nice; a cute two-story place on the outside of town. That summer was really nice; I went camping for the first time, I went to the beach, and Janet and James took lots of pictures of us all together. And in the fall, I would be starting school!

"James, are there going to be lots of kids at the school?" I asked.

He laughed. He always loved my questions, it was strange but nice. "Of course kiddo! And call me Dad! Frisk is going to love school, right babe?"

"Hmm?" Janet asked, looking up from her phone, posting all the pictures she had taken. "Oh, of course!"

James was a teacher at the high school, so he started work a lot earlier than when my school started. So Janet, who worked night shifts a few times a week, would grab me after work, drop me off, and come home and go to sleep. But that night before my first day, I was so excited I could hardly sleep! But then, I did fall asleep…and I didn't wake up to any alarm. I heard birds chirping outside my window, so I pulled myself out of bed and went downstairs: no one was there, but it was noon already. I was late! On the first day! Maybe James' alarm clock hadn't gone off? 

I went to my parents room, and neither of them were there. I was scared, to be honest. I curled into their bed, which I had done the first couple of times I slept at that house, and cried. It wasn't long though until I heard the front door open. I bounded down the stairs, and saw Janet stumble into the living room, her guard uniform all over the place. She looked a mess, but she gave me a confused, groggy look.

"Hey, kid," she said, words slurring a bit, "aren't you supposed to be at school?"

I nodded. "You um…you didn't wake me up."

"I'm supposed to wake you up?!" She asked, rubbing her temples.

I nodded. "You and Dad…James, talked about it a few nights ago. You would come home after work and take me to school before you went to sleep."

"Shit!" She yelled, make me cringe. Swearing at the orphanage would get you a, "belt on the backside," as Sister Rosemary put it.

"Maybe I can still go in?" I suggested, "Just explain you got caught up at work late."

Janet rolled your eyes. "Get real, Frisk. I'm not going to get that sort of judgment."

I didn't really understand what she meant, but she called in and made an excuse about me being sick.

"Janet needs a nap, kiddo," Janet sighed to you after she hung up. "Let's just go play in the basement and I'll lay on the couch."

They had set up my play room in the basement alongside with a small living room. Most of the toys were for kids younger than I was, but I didn't mind. The thought was appreciated. So Janet fell asleep on the couch, work uniform and weird odor and all, and I played for awhile, hoping I didn't miss anything exciting at the first day of school.

The day took a turn downhill when James got home though. "Honey? Frisk?" He yelled, but I could tell he sounded angry.

Janet groaned from the couch; she could tell he wasn't happy too.

"Janet," James said, ignoring me completely, which kind of hurt, "why did I hear from the district that Frisk wasn't in class today?"

"Frisk was not in class today," Janet answered, groggy.

"Janet have you been drinking?!"

She shrugged, "Some of the girls wanted to grab a few after the shift."

James was livid, "Frisk had school in the morning! Even if it had been an emergency, you should have called!"

"Nothing ever happens on the first day!" Janet replied, raising her voice, "Frisk didn't miss anything."

Despite how much my name was getting thrown around, I didn't think either of them realized I was in the room. Especially since now the yelling was starting.

"Frisk is already behind in the curriculum and needs all the help they can get!" James shouted, "Learning to read doesn't happen overnight, and missing class isn't going to help!"

"It was one day! Why didn't you take them to school?"

"Janet, I have to be at the high school two hours before Frisk even needs to be awake! There's no before-school program at this district."

"So I have to go out of my way to get them after work when I'm already tired?!"

"Yes! That's what we AGREED on! And you weren't too tired to go out and drink with your friends! You're a mom now!"

"UGH!" Janet yelled. "I'm going to bed!"

She got up and stormed upstairs, but James wasn't letting her get away, they yelled all the way up the stairs, and turned the lights off, leaving you in the pitch dark basement.

"D-dad?"! I stammered.

I had a pretty big fear of the dark. I cried and yelled for them, but they couldn't hear me over their own yelling and plate-breaking. I know this might sound kind of silly, but I couldn't bring myself to move. I sat in that basement, and I cried. The time I did try and move, I stepped on something – probably just one of my toys – and it scared me more. I was hungry and tired, but I couldn't bring myself to move. I just thought something would get me. Finally, I heard James say upstairs, "Where's Frisk?"

"I don't know!" Janet snapped.

"HELP!" I yelled, spotting my opening.

I heard frantic footsteps, and the door to the basement swung opened. The lights clicked on and I felt silly for sitting in such a familiar room, sobbing my eyes out. James ran downstairs and hugged me. "Oh! I'm so sorry! Come on, dinner is almost ready!"

"O…okay." I stammered.

Things were different after that. James would get me up and take me to school with him, and I had to get up REALLY early. Then he'd run me down the block to the elementary school. For the rest of the week, things went well, otherwise. Janet would pick me up from school and go back to bed. But, Janet and James didn't go out and play with me like they used to. Maybe it was something they said to each other.

Over the weekend, we were all watching a movie – it was my favorite movie about this fish that gets lost and his dad has to find him – before my bed time. And I think they both thought I fell asleep.

"Babe…can you start taking Frisk to school?" James asked.

Janet groaned. "I guess. Why can't you keep taking the kid?"

The way she referred to me as, "kid," a lot was starting to hurt my feelings. It wasn't like affectionate," kiddo," or something it used to be.

"Well, I feel bad making Frisk wake up two hours early and sitting in my office for my first two classes."

Janet rolled her eyes, I could tell. She did that a lot lately. "Fine."

"Janet, what's gotten into you lately? The last few weeks you've been acting really different?"

"I'm going to bed." She replied, curtly, and stood up.

I sat up, surprising them both. I cleared my throat and said, quietly, "I'm sorry that I'm in your way, Janet."

Janet turned really pale, but didn't say anything. James hugged me and assured me that I wasn't in anyone's way or anything of the sort.

"I just…I just don't feel like Janet love's me anymore." I confessed.

James wouldn't hear it. "Nonsense. We're your parents, we love you!"

I wasn't so convinced. James was at least attentive, but something seemed off.

Monday rolled around, and I was once again woken by the sound of birds. The house was once again empty, and this time, I didn't panic. I went down to the kitchen, poured myself some cereal, and watched some cartoons.

James came home and threw the door open. "JANET!" He yelled, "We need to talk!"

He stormed into the kitchen to see me, working on my second bowl of Fruity Circles, still in my pjs. "Hi." I said, awkwardly.

"Hello dear," he replied, putting on a calmer tone, but he wasn't nearly as good hiding his emotions as I was. "Where's your mother?"

I shrugged. "She hasn't been home since I've been awake."

James went into a panic mode and began making calls and sending texts on his phone. He must have spent hours on that thing, trying to track down his wife. Finally, he sat down at the kitchen table.

"I'm sorry Frisk."

At the time, I didn't realize how serious he was being. I thought he was just apologizing for me missing school again. So I joked back, "I'm sorry for finishing the Fruity Circles."

He laughed, but it wasn't his normal laugh.

We ordered a pizza and he had my assignments emailed to me from my teacher, so I did my homework and went to bed.

Late that night, I was woken up to the sound of a plate being broken.

"JUST SHUT UP, JAMES!"

"Janet, you're going to wake up Frisk."

"DO YOU THINK I GIVE A SHIT?"

Janet was slurring her words again.

"What has gotten into you?" James asked, his voice growing a bit too.

"ME?" Janet gave an angry laugh and there was another sound of a plate breaking. "You! You're the one who decided, not two weeks after I found out I couldn't have kids, to go looking to adopt one!"

"You said you wanted a family! We both wanted a family!"

"Maybe I wasn't ready! Maybe I wasn't ready to take in someone else's child! Maybe I was still hurting!"

"Why didn't you tell me this a few months ago?!" James sounded hurt, and betrayed.

"Because you were so excited! And at first I thought I was too. But now all of a sudden, I'm a mother to this eleven year old, and I'm twenty-eight. What sort of memories can I make with this kid? There's no cute baby photos! I don't even know what Frisk likes!"

Janet was crying now. She wasn't the only one; despite all that was going on, to hear my fears being true broke my heart.

"That' so shallow!" James was choking up, too, "you told me that you wanted Frisk because they were low-maintenance! You can't just go back on that now! Parenting isn't about baby photos! It's about loving your child!"

"FRISK ISN'T MY CHILD!"

I started to sob. I knew I wasn't their kid, obviously, but we had gone camping together, as a family, not even a month ago. Why couldn't we just be happy again?

"Janet…what do we do?"

"…let's take Frisk back."

Panic gripped my chest, and I grabbed the stuffed dog that I took to bed every night. I held it against my chest as tightly as I could. I didn't want to go back.

"Janet, we can't take Frisk back. It doesn't work that way."

"James, I can't do this anymore. I was…I was at my parent's today. I think I'm going to stay with them."

"Janet, no..."

"I'm sorry, James."

James didn't say anything, and Janet walked to their room to gather her things. She walked past my room and looked into the door, and she saw me sitting up in my bed, still sobbing. Our eyes met, briefly, and she looked down and whispered that she was sorry.

She left that night, and I never saw her again.

James did his best, but he was a broken man after that. He stopped taking me to school. We barely talked anymore. Every day, I gave him a compliment, told him he looked nice or that it sounded like he helped the students a lot today. But after awhile, he didn't even smile at them anymore, so I stopped.

And then I accepted it; no, I wasn't special. I couldn't make anyone happy. In fact, I was brought into this marriage to help these two, and all I did was tear them apart.

Sometimes, when I was home alone and James was at work, I would go to the park by our house. One day, I heard some drop out kid telling his younger brother about Mt. Ebott, telling him how no one ever came back.

I actually went to Mt. Ebott a lot of times after that. I thought maybe if I disappeared, James and Janet could be happy again. They roped off that hole you fell in really well, Chara; I didn't even know it was there. So it'd start to get dark, and nothing would happen, and I'd walk back home. James stopped noticing.

Then, one day, when I went up there, the ropes were down. And I don't know what compelled me, exactly, but I explored further into the summit. And there, there was the hole.

It's a bit like what happened with you, Chara. I wanted to disappear, so that everyone could have a better life. And what a better way to disappear then falling into a bottomless pit?

You wrapped your arms around Frisk and held them, tightly. "I'm so sorry, Frisk."

Frisk wiped a tear out of their eyes. "It's okay. All things considered, I didn't have it as bad as you."  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You shook your head against the top of theirs and replied, "Having crappy childhoods is not a competition. You're an amazing person Frisk, and neglecting you was terrible of them."

"Thanks, Chara." Frisk sighed. But this was a happier sounding sigh.

"And just for the record, I still think making people happy is like your super power," you added, and they laughed.

As the mood relaxed, your arms went through Frisk again, making them go, "Aw," in disappointment.

"Well, that was nice while it lasted." Frisk said, winking at you and making you blush again.

"C-cut it out!" you stammered, "We should get going. I want to find out what that weird phone call was all about.

Frisk stood up and nodded. "Me too, come on."

You both went to the elevator. But as it thunked on, the cables made a grinding noise, and it began moving so fast Frisk was thrown to the ground with an, "AH!"

When it finally stopped, you were not in Alphys' lab; you were back outside of New Home. You and Frisk stepped out, and squelching sound rang out from behind you. Whipping around, you both saw that the elevator was covered in vines. You felt a sinking feeling in the pit of your gut.

"I'm starting to regret your decision to ask Flowey for help." You gulped.

Frisk shook their head and gave you a confident grin. "Well, we'll see. I think things are going to work out, just you wait, Chara."

"Don't get too cocky, Frisk," You warned.

Frisk laughed. "How can I not be feeling great? I just smooched a ghost."

You turned a bright red and groaned. But, apparently it does count as your first kiss.


	11. Hopes and Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You never thought your plan could have consequences like this.

Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox  
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You and Frisk stood outside of the room where they had fought Dad before getting wrapped up in Flowey's scheme. Frisk had lost a little bit of their confidence, but you knew why.

"You don't want to have to fight Dad again, huh?" you asked, quietly.

Frisk nodded. "Right…the whole point was so that no one would have to die."

With a deep breath and a nervous smile, you and Frisk walked up to the barrier where Dad was.

"Child…it was nice to have met you." Dad said, and Frisk braced themselves. But suddenly, a fireball whooshed through the room, pushing Dad back and causing both of you to jump.

"Wha…?" Frisk asked, but then a look of joy spread across their face. You couldn't help but smile too as you saw Mom running through the door way.

"Miserable creature," she spat, "attacking a harmless child like that."

Your smile fell. Regardless of what had occurred since you died, hearing Mom insult Dad like that was still upsetting.

Frisk ran up to Toriel and hugged her. "Worry not, my child, there is no need to fight."

"Tori!" Dad exclaimed.

"Don't, 'Tori,' me, Dreemurr!" Mom growled. "Sitting here and waiting for kids to fall down. "

Frisk backed off a bit, having never seen Toriel in, "Angry," Mode. You remember it being scary too.

"I've never seen her be like this to Dad," you whispered to Frisk, and they nodded discretely back to you.

"If you wanted to free the monsters," Mom continued, "you could have taken the first human soul and gone to the surface yourself to get six more. You are a coward."

"Not that easy..." You objected haughtily, knowing they couldn't hear you. Frisk stifled a giggle.

Dad was on the verge of tears, "Yes, I suppose you're right. Still…can we be friends again?"

"No!" Mom snapped.

Before this could go on, thankfully, a gaggle of monsters burst into the room. Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys and Mettaton all fell through the doorway, shouting at the same time, causing Frisk's jaw to drop. You chuckled a bit.

"HOLD ON THERE, FRIENDS, THERE IS NO NEED TO DO A VIOLENCE ON EACH OTHER!"

"Nobody kill anybody or I'll kill you!"

"P-P-Please wait!"

"Cut the action, darlings!"

Mom and Dad forgot their argument and exchanged dumbfounded glances. "One at a time, please!" Dad said when the four picked themselves up. Papyrus took it upon himself to go first and ran up to Frisk.

"PLEASE, DO NOT ENGAGE THE KING IN PHYSICAL COMBAT!" Papyrus pleased, hugging Frisk tightly causing them to erupt into laughter. Then he did a double take at Mom and Dad, and asked Frisk, "HUMAN, DID KING ASGORE SHAVE…AND THEN CLONE HIMSELF?"

You laughed with Frisk at that one, and Undyne and Alphys ran up to Asgore instead. "Well hello you two, what are you doing here?" He asked.

"W-well sir, you s-see we came by because we didn't want either you or Frisk to h-hurt each other."

"hey, am i missing a party?" Came a voice walking through the door, and you turned to see Sans. He ignored your gaze and joined his brother.

"LATE AS USUAL BROTHER! YOU'VE MISSED THE ENTIRE CLONING PROCESS OF OUR KING!"

"Wait, I know that voice!" Toriel exclaimed, rushing over to Sans, and they introduced each other as the bad-joke-loving voices from beyond the door.

The room quickly became a disaster of monsters talking over each other trying to figure out what was happening and convincing everyone who would listen not to fight Frisk.

You and Frisk exchanged baffled looks. "Well," you observed, "this is still better than what happened last time."

"METTATON, DID YOU TRY MY SPAGHETTI?"

Frisk nodded to you as Mettaton explained that Papyrus never sent in his spaghetti. "Yeah, I'll give you that one."

"Wait a second!" Undyne half-shouted, and everyone turned to her. "Papyrus, how did you know to call us all here?"

"OH, WELL…" Papyrus looked quite pleased with himself, "LET'S JUST SAY A LITTLE FLOWER TOLD ME."

"WHAT?!" Shouted Alphys, in fear.

Vines erupted through the room , wrapping up all the monsters in the room. Flowey popped up from the ground, and gave Frisk the smuggest of all cocky grins.

"Well hey there you BIG IDIOT!" Flowey cackled. "It's me! Your best friend Flowey!"

"Oh, this is bad." You said, in Frisk's ear. They tensed up, but didn't respond to you.

"So not only did I have time to steal all those squishy human souls," Flowey crowed proudly, "but now I can kill YOU in front of all these people who just LOVE YOU SO MUCH!"

A ring of bullets surrounded Frisk, and the two of you reached for each other's hands, though it didn't work. But as the ring closed in on you both, Mom and Dad used their fire magic together to dispel the attack.

"Buh?!" Flowey exclaimed, angrily.

"Do not worry my child!" Mom yelled, despite her restraints, "We will not let any harm befall you!"

She was right. More bullets approached you both from the right, but they were intercepted by magical bones.

"HUMAN! I BELIEVE IN YOU TO DEFEAT THE TREACHEROUS FLOWER IN MY, THE GREAT PAPYRUS' PLACE! I WILL ALWAYS BE HERE FOR YOU!"

"yeah, im pulling for you too, kid. you haven't beaten this thing already?"

Bullets came from the left, and they were instead blocked by magical spears and electric barriers.

"Come on punk, show this little puke what you're made of!"

"Y-you can do it!"Alphys added.

Before Frisk could respond, more monsters, from all over the Underground, rushed into the room and stood in front of Frisk to guard them from Flowey; Monster Kid, the Royal Guards, Snowdrake, Woshua…all of them encouraging Frisk or yelling at Flowey.

And then the sound of vines splitting the ground and grabbing them echoed in the chamber. They were all pulled aside, and Flowey stared Frisk in the eye, emotionlessly.

"Wow, looks like the whole underground came here to help you, huh?" Flowey asked. Frisk hesitantly nodded.

"It's…it's so touching." Flowey said, almost sounding like he was going to choke up, "everyone came because they love you, don't they?"

Frisk didn't say anything, but gritted their teeth.

"I guess you know what that means, huh?" Flowey asked innocently, before bearing his fangs, "That you're all JUST A BUNCH OF STUPID IDIOTS! YOUR SOULS ARE MINE!"

A blinding white light filled the room. Knowing what happened last time, you threw your arms around Frisk and held tightly, hoping you wouldn't get separated from them again.

When the room came back into view, you could still feel you were in a battle, and you were still holding onto Frisk.

"Are you okay?" You whispered, worried.

Frisk nodded, "Are you?"

You were going to respond back, but you looked up and choked. "N-no."

You had to be seeing things. He was dead. He was dead.

But no, he turned around, and spoke to you – both of you, perhaps, you couldn't tell if he saw you with Frisk or not, "Howdy Chara! It's me, your best friend!"

Then, your friend morphed himself in another flash, reverting to the body the two of you had briefly shared. The one you had used to attack the village. The one you had pushed him into, the one that you hoped would set everyone free. The body with the power to kill your Father and that village you hated so much.

The second body you died in, cementing your mistakes, and taking down someone you loved dearly with you.

"Chara?" Frisk asked you quietly.

"…Asriel Dreemurr." You said, quietly. Frisk's jaw dropped and looked back at your friend.

"Are you surprised, Chara?" Asriel laughed, his gentle voice not at all how you remembered it. "I won't pretend I wasn't upset that you never recognized me."

He brandished a pair of glowing swords.

"He's preparing his Chaos Sabers, look out!" You warned Frisk. You remembered playing supervillains as kids. His attacks always had the silliest names.

Frisk ducked under one blade and leapt over another.

"But to be fair, I did look pretty different, didn't I?" Asriel snarled, materialized a large laser that rested over his shoulders.

Frisk dashed away from the laser blast at your urging.

"You missed those plaques in the lab, even after I went through all that trouble to send you there."

You locked up as Frisk continued to hold on. They were struck by a few attacks, but refused to go down; they were as baffled as you were.

"Alphys need something to inject determination into, Chara! Something that wasn't human or monster!"

Frisk danced around the room as lighting rained down upon them. You were in too much shock to help them. At one point they were struck and fell, and you almost could feel the RESET coming, but Frisk coughed and stood up.

"I refuse!" They breathed to Asriel, determination ringing in their voice.

Asriel ignored them. "What do you think it was, Chara!? Didn't you notice all those flowers from Dad's garden in her lab?! ALL THE FLOWERS OUR DUST SCATTERED ACROSS?!"

Asriel had been Flowey all along…is this what your plan had done to him? Leaving a broken, murderous shell of what your brother had once been? All the guilt you had for getting someone so innocent killed…but this is much worse.

Frisk dodged the Chaos Sabers once again.

"Now I'M the one in charge, Chara!" Asriel laughed, the laugh sounding closer to Flowey's laugh than the one you remembered from the tickle fights you used to have. "With these souls all wriggling inside me, I can feel again. And I can do all that RESETting business you thought I knew nothing about back when you were alive."

Frisk was blasted in the chest, and fell once again, but they let out a loud grunt, and climbed back to their feet. "NO!"

Asriel kept going, despite Frisk's defiance. "I'm going to send you all the way back to the beginning, and make you do it allllllllll over again! You won't even remember!" He attacked more fiercely at Frisk, his façade of the calm, cool, and collected villain faltering, "I'll kill you over and over again, and then when I'm bored, I'll make you go through the Underground again. And just when you think you can save everyone in the Underground, just when you think you'll get that HAPPY ENDING you so desperately crave, I'll rip it all away so you can be stuck here forever!"

"He's…he's preparing Hyper Goner." You told Frisk, numbly. Even as Frisk had been struck, you didn't feel it. You were in too much shock. You did this.

Asriel morphed into a giant skull, just like in his old drawings, and began sucking everything around him in. Being incorporeal, you weren't affected – but Frisk was. You could see them struggling, and they locked eyes with you. You became very aware that they had not asked you for help this whole time, knowing how hard this was on you. Frisk had taken the burden of this battle, of refusing to die, alone. Your emotions flooded back to you, and a thought struck you – When was the last time Frisk had SAVED? It was back in the lab. The SAVE points had all vanished in New Home. Has Asriel erased them all? What would happen if…?

You reached out and grabbed both of Frisk's hands, holding tightly.

"D-don't…" Frisk stammered.

You weren't sure what the rest of sentence was going to be, but you shook your head. "I've got you, Frisk."

Finally, the skull seemed to implode on itself, destroying everything it had taken in. Asriel seemed genuinely surprised to see Frisk there still.

"Still hanging in there, Chara?" He laughed, "Well, maybe I should stop playing around. After all, this is only a fraction of the power I have with all these wiggly souls inside me."

You realized he was right, and your face flushed again. That was the form used with one monster and one human soul. With six human souls and who knows how many monsters souls, what could…?

You didn't have to wait long to find out. There was another flash of light, and Asriel was different again. You gasped in horror and went into a state of shock again. He was a giant, winged abomination of a creature, different from anything you could have ever imagined. He immediately blasted Frisk with a ray of light, knocking your friend to the ground. But you were there, and you caught them. "Hold on, Frisk."

Frisk looked at you and smirked, weakly. "I'm not giving up."

How they were still going amazed you, but Asriel held them in place. Frisk struggled, and it all seemed hopeless.

But you could hear something. It seemed familiar. It seemed to be coming from Asriel's midsection. But what?

Then you remembered. It was the faint cries you had heard from the six human souls back when Flowey – err, Asriel – had taken them before. They were calling, but not just calling out helplessly like last time. They were calling to you. You had come to their rescue last time, and now they were returning the favor.

"Reach out to your friends."

"Save them!"

"He can't stay like this if you save them."

You closed your eyes and listened carefully. Beyond the human souls, you could hear the faintest whispers from the monster souls within. How you could hear them, you weren't sure. Probably something to do with being dead. You could hear whispers of spaghetti and bad puns, anime and spears. You could hear Mom mumbling butterscotch pie recipes, and Dad's gardening tips. You could hear the lost souls of all the monsters you and Frisk had come to care about.

"Frisk," you said, catching your friend's attention as they desperately looked for some way to resist your brother's attack.

"Yeah?"

"Maybe we can't SAVE anymore," you started, "but I think you can SAVE something else."

Frisk looked at you, confused, and you nodded to Asriel. "Listen."

You merged yourself to Frisk. It was different from when you took control in some battles – you were working together now, like you had that one time you dodged Papyrus' giant bone attack. Frisk, could hear them now too.

In their head, they asked of you, "Chara…help me reach out to them."

"Of course, Frisk," You responded with a warm smile.

You both reached out with Frisk's soul, into Asriel's. The found Alphys' soul first, and you were both shocked to see her, floating with her face blurred out into dust.

"I'm worthless," it droned.

"N-No!" Frisk declared, "No you aren't! Only you can help me with this really hard puzzle."

Her shoulders went back slightly. "She seems to feel a bit better," you advised Frisk, "keep going!"

"And then we could watch that anime I promised you later!" Frisk insisted, "We all can! You, me, Papyrus and Undyne!"

Alphys face reformed, and she smiled. "Y-yeah! You're right! I have friends! I'm not too bad after all! Keep fighting, Frisk!"

Not needing reminding, you and Frisk searched further until you found Undyne floating around within Asriel's soul.

"All humans must die," she droned.

Frisk shook their head and gave Undyne a big smile, just like she always would give.

You saw the stance the Captain of the Guard had relax slightly. "She's remembering!" You encouraged, "you got this!"

Frisk gave Undyne another fake hit, just like on their date, and shouted, "Come on punk, snap out of it! I need you to teach me how to cook some more stuff! YOU NEED TO SHOW ME HOW TO PROPERLY DESTROY A TOMATO, UNDYNE!"

Undyne's face snapped back to normal, and she picked up Frisk and squeezed. "Right! Some humans are okay, and you're the best of all! Give 'em hell, squirt!"

From outside, you could hear Asriel screaming in rage and confusion. "That's our cue, cutie-pie!" Frisk yelled to you, leaving Undyne looking confused and you blushing a bit, "Let's go!"

You both searched deeper into this void of souls, and you came upon Sans and Papyrus, together as always.

"what's the point?"

"I WILL NEVER GET INTO THE ROYAL GUARD, UNLESS YOU ARE DESTROYED!"

Frisk thought for a moment, unsure of what to do. "Guys, wait. What do skeletons use to make phone calls?"

You gave Frisk a confused look, but they ignored you and answered their question, "A Tele-Bone!"

Sans seemed amused, and Papyrus groaned

"A-and if they let you into the Royal Guard too soon, you'd win the cutest guard competition on your first week, and that's just not fair," Frisk flirted, causing Papyrus to swell up with pride. Sans seemed pleased too.

"You're doing it!" You encouraged.

"Now, let's get out of here and have some of that spaghetti!" Frisk cheered.

The skeleton brothers reverted back to normal, both looking cheerful.

"RIGHT, I COULD NEVER HURT MY GREAT FRIEND!"

"thanks kid, we're rootin' for ya."

"You're doing great, Frisk, let's go!" You cheered, and the two of you went to the very center of the void.

You weren't surprised to find that's where Asriel put Mom and Dad. Perhaps he wasn't completely lost, putting them at the center of all the souls.

"Go back upstairs!" Mom's lost soul shouted.

"It will all be over soon…" Dad said, ominously.

This time Frisk was quiet. They reached in their pockets and pulled out a piece of the butterscotch pie Mom had given them a few days ago. Breaking it in half, Frisk gave a piece to both of them.

Instantly, Mom and Dad came back to their senses. They looked at the pie in their hands and smiled warmly to Frisk.

"You are truly the hopes of all monsters." Dad said, proudly. You didn't feel jealous this time; he was right after all.

"I'll always be here for you, child." Mom smiled.

You were both from Asriel's soul void, staring down your brother once more. This time, it was different. He seemed upset, lashing out at Frisk irrationally and full of fear. "W-why?!" Your brother was shrieking through a crackling voice now, sending nonsensical attacks at your partner.

Frisk ducked.

"Why won't you let me win, Chara!?" Asriel cried.

Frisk jumped out of the way.

"I don't want to erase everything anymore…I just don't want you to leave!"

Your heart broke as Frisk dodged again. At the end of the day...Asriel was still just a lonely kid who wanted his best friend back.

"Because you'll leave that barrier, and you'll never play with me again!"

"Frisk," you choked, holding back tears, "Save him."

Frisk looked at you, and gave a firm nod. "Of course."

"ASRIEL!" Frisk screamed, reaching out a hand.

"Wh-what?" He cried.

"Chara wouldn't want this." Frisk insisted.

"Stop it." Asriel growled back.

"Chara loves you. Your family loves you. Let's stop," Frisk replied.

"No! STOP TRYING TO TRICK ME, CHARA!" Asriel screamed, and began charging something. "AND JUST DIE ALREADY!"

Asriel unleashed a massive laser that took up the entire room. Without thinking you threw yourself in front of Frisk, locking your fingers in theirs so that your body was completely blocking theirs.

The beam burned your body, and you could tell that even being in the way, Frisk was still getting hit. As you screamed in pain, Frisk buried their head in your chest, squeezing your fingers and bearing the pain silently. "Chara!" They cried, so only you could hear.

Through the pain you managed to put your forehead against theirs. You could feel yourself slipping away from them. "F-Frisk," You squeezed their fingers while you still could, "Thank you. Thank you for everything."

"Chara…" Frisk whispered to you. "No. I don't want to do this without you."

"It's up to you now, okay?" You insisted. You were fading, and you weren't sure why, but you didn't have a good feeling about it. You pushed your lips into Frisk's once more, and then you were gone. "Be good. Be you."

"CHARA!" Frisk called for you as they were struck with the laser, but you were already taken into the darkness.

Your eyes fluttered open, and you were in the last place you expected; your flower-patch grave.

You weren't alone either. Asriel was there. Back in his normal form. What had happened? Was this the afterlife? Were you both dead now?

"Azzy?" You called out. He couldn't hear you though. "Azzy, come on!"

He just picked a flower and played with it in his hands. He looked like he was going to cry.

"Won't be long now, and I'll look like this again." He sighed.

You bit your lip. He'd go back to being Flowey. And it was still your fault.

"It was nice while it lasted though," he sighed, "and guess what, Chara? I did it. I finished what we started. I used all the souls, and I broke the barrier."

You laughed, and then you cried. He did it. He and Frisk did it. Frisk had gotten it done after all. Tears poured down your face and you were practically in hysterics. And you missed it!

"Did you feel like I did when I was a flower, Chara? Did you feel empty inside?" Asriel asked the patch of flowers he didn't realize you were sitting on. You pondered the question. When you were alive, you had made yourself empty for a long time. But there was still happiness with your new family, and lots of lingering hatred and anger for your old village. Perhaps if you had more inside, you'd have been too preoccupied to obsess over revenge.

"They'll be on the surface soon, if they aren't already," he sighed, "Then it will just be me and you."

Just you and your brother, stuck as a ghost and a flower, unable to interact. Perhaps it was a fitting punishment for you, but Asriel didn't deserve this. You felt the tears coming again, but there was a voice behind your brother, startling you both.

It was Frisk, clearing their throat.

You stood up, not hiding the joy on your face to see them again. They shot you small grin before turning to Asriel, "Hey. I had a feeling I'd find you here."

Asriel gave a small laugh. "Well, someone has to stay and tend to these flowers."

Frisk gave a nervous laugh back. "Right…well…I wanted to thank you for destroying the barrier."

Asriel smiled. You were glad to see it; this was the Asriel you remembered. Not…not what you had just fought. "It's the least I could do Frisk. Now no one has to be stuck down here. But…now that you're here, there's something I want you to know."

Frisk took a seat next to Asriel, silently, but looked up at you briefly.

"When Chara and I merged, we had shared control of our body," Asriel explained, "and when we got to the village, Chara wanted me to attack the villagers. But…I got scared, and I stopped him. We got attacked, and then when we got back, we both… well, we died. That's why I got that morphed, 'kill or be killed,' mentality in my head. I guess I blamed myself for us dying. Not that that's an excuse. I mean, let's be honest, I did some messed up things as a flower."

Frisk laughed. "It's okay. No hard feelings."

"Speaking of being stuck down here, why did you come here Frisk? Surely you've heard the legends." Asriel asked.

Frisk looked at their feet. You knew why, but with what Frisk had gone through, there was no way they were telling that story again.

Asriely took the hint and continued, "Well, Chara never told me exactly what it was, but it wasn't for a happy reason. Chara hated humanity. They never really got over it. I guess…I guess other than having similar fashion senses, you guys aren't that similar."

Frisk patted Asriel on the shoulder. Asriel gave a bitter laugh. "If I'm being honest; Chara was not a very good person."

The words stung, and tears fell down your face, gently. But, you knew it hurt because they were right. Despite that you loved your adoptive family, holding onto all that hate made you push your brother into a plan that got you both killed, broke up your family, and caused despair on the underground. You had thought you were above consequences, but since when were you the one in control?

Frisk spoke up though. "Well, I think sometimes people try to do what they think is the right thing, but because of things that happened to them before, they don't know how to go about doing it. So they use the wrong means to get there. But…that's just me."

You smiled at Frisk, and they met you with a reassuring gaze.

Asriel shrugged. "Maybe. But…soon I'm going to go back to being Flowey. So…I guess I want to say I'm sorry in advance. And please don't consider that to be the real me."

Frisk shook their head with vigor, "Of course not, Asriel. We're friends. Do you want me to stay here for it?"

"No." Asriel said, with determination of his own, "no, I don't want anyone to see that happen to me. Strange as it sounds, I'd rather be alone for that. Don't tell Mom or Dad about me being here, okay?"

Frisk hesitated but nodded. "If you're sure….goodbye Asriel. I won't forget you."

Asriel stood up and the two hugged. The sight warmed your heart. "Well hey Frisk," he said, laughing genuinely this time, "don't kill, and don't get killed."

Frisk giggled back. "You too, fuzz face."

Frisk looked back to you once more before walking away.

The strangest thing happened as they left; you were certain that you were sent back here because you were now destined to be with Asriel, but you could feel the haziness coming over you again. You were being sucked back to Frisk.

"Wait!" You yelled out, "Asriel!"

Asriel looked around, surprised. He couldn't see you, but it seemed like he heard you. "Chara?!"

"I'm sorry for what I did, Asriel!" You shouted, "I never wanted you to get hurt!"

Asriel looked scared, but smiled. "You mean it?"

You were beginning to fade, so you raised your voice, "I NEVER FORGAVE MYSELF FOR WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU! I'M PROUD OF YOU FOR BREAKING THE BARRIER. YOU'LL ALWAYS BE MY BEST FRIEND."

Asriel laughed and began to cry, only slightly. "Thanks Chara. You'll always be my beset friend too, no matter what."

"Goodbye Asriel," you choked out, "I love you."

Before you faded, you heard him say, "I love you too, Chara."

You blinked a few times, and through your teary eyes, you saw Frisk's confused face, staring at you in surprise outside of Home.

"Chara?" They asked, "I thought you were stuck there again?"

You couldn't answer before collapsing into Frisk's arms and sobbing. You weren't sure how these rules of when and how you could become corporeal for Frisk worked, but you were all too thankful to feel Frisk's hands rub against your back as they whispered, "sshhhh, it's okay," in your ear.

After you managed to calm down, Frisk pulled away. "Wipe the tears away, and let me see those beautiful red eyes."

You snorted a laugh, amazed that after everything that had happened today, Frisk still found time to flirt with you. You did as they asked.

"That's better," Frisk cooed, "so what happened?"

You shook your head and said, "I don't know. You left and I could feel myself getting pulled away. I apologized to Asriel – and he heard me – and now I'm here."

Frisk was just as confused as you were, "I thought you appearing there just meant you had to be stuck there again. Do you want me to go back so you can see him?"

You paused. "I…I don't know. No. He wanted to be alone. For once, maybe we should respect his wishes…but…"

"But what, Chara?"

"Can we come back for him, later?" You pleaded, "After we get you to the surface, can we come back and get him? Even if he's a flower? I don't want to leave my brother down here alone."

Frisk smiled and nodded. "Of course we can. Now come on. Everyone's waiting."

The two of you walked out of Home and into Snowdin. "How did you know he'd be there?" You asked.

"I didn't," Frisk answered, "to be honest, I thought he was dead. When you left the fight, he turned back to normal, and asked me to forgive him. Then he released all the souls, which broke the barrier. I woke up, and everyone was so happy! But before we headed up the surface, they let me take a walk."

"Oh," you replied, "then what made you come all the way back here?"

Frisk gave one of their rare blushes, "Come on Chara, don't be dense. I was looking for you! The way you left me like that, I was worried sick! I thought you were gone forever."

You turned a deep crimson. "I was under the impression I WOULD be gone forever."

"None of that!" Frisk beamed, "I promised to help you, and I will."

You sighed. "I'm not sure I deserve that Frisk. Asriel was right about me. I'm not a good person. All these problems…they've been my fault."

Frisk squeezed your hand, filling you with warmth. "That was then. And in these last few days? You've undone it. You've gone what you set out to do, and this time, no one had to get hurt. You freed everyone. You and Asriel."

You raised an eyebrow at Frisk. "Frisk, you did that."

Frisk pecked you on the cheek, making you go red again. "Don't be modest. I would have never done all of this without you. We're a team. Partners. You've been there every step of the way. Maybe that's why you're a ghost and you've been bound to me? So you can set right what once went wrong. Maybe you don't think it, but I think you've gone and redeemed yourself."

You smiled and sniffled a bit at them. "You always know what to say, Frisk."

Frisk giggled. By now, the two of you had reached the ferry-monster, and had taken the ride to Hotlands.

"Are you excited?" You asked Frisk, as the two of you made your way to the castle.

Frisk smiled nervously back, "More nervous than anything. I never told you why I'm so determined to get back to the surface."

"Why's that?" You asked.

"Well, I want to find James and Janet. Tell them I can make it on my own, and that they can get back together," Frisk explained, "I feel like I ruined their marriage. I kind of figured me living after jumping was kind of a sign that I should fix it. But…I guess that sounds kind of silly."

You nodded. "Frisk, you don't need to apologize to them. They neglected you!"

Frisk laughed. "I know…that's why once I started to get to know all of you, I became determined to help all of the monsters instead. I had make sure they got free."

"That's been your plan ever since you asked me if we could free everyone, isn't it?" You asked, slyly.

Frisk grinned. "Guilty."

"I'll say it again Frisk. You're amazing."

Frisk blushed. "Thanks, babe."

Finally, the two of you let go of your hands as Frisk met up with the monsters. After all, holding hands with the air would look silly.

You were excited as the group stepped out into the sunset over looking Mt. Ebott. You never thought you'd get to see the look of the sunset warming Mom and Dad's faces. The sight made you feel amazing.

"OH MY GOD SANS, WHAT IS THAT?!"

"that's the sun, pap."

"Oh my, child," Toriel sighed, "what a beautiful sight."

"Indeed," Asgore agreed, "we can not thank you enough for making this all possible."

Frisk had been appointed ambassador of monsters; they were perfect for the task. Before long, everyone was ready to go down the mountain. Mom turned to Frisk though, and asked, "my child, do you have anywhere to go? If not, you're more than welcome to come with me."

Frisk paused, and you looked over to them. You were surprised; they were looking to you for permission. "Frisk," you assured, "of course it's okay."

Frisk looked at Toriel and beamed. "I'd love to stay with you!"

Mom laughed. "Oh, you silly child. If you wanted to stay with me this whole thing could have been avoided. Still, this all turned out for the best."

Everyone laughed as they made their way down the mountain. Frisk took Toriel's hand, and you walked on the other side of them, the two of you letting your hands brush against each others.

It wasn't perfect, but for now, everything was great.

Papyrus spoke up, to your surprise, "FRISK, I DO HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU, IF YOU HAVE A MOMENT."

Everyone turned and looked at Papyrus in surprise. "Yes?" Frisk replied.

Papyrus looked around. "WELL, AT FIRST I WAS THINKING MAYBE THEY WERE JUST SHY, BUT NOW I'VE SEEN YOU IN THESE BIG GROUPS, AND NO ONE EVER ACKNOWLEDGES THEM."

Sans looked like he had just seen a ghost. "paps, no, why didn't you tell me you could…?"

What were they talking about?

"What do you mean?" Frisk asked.

Now you understood what Sans was doing, because you took a shocked face too; Papyrus pointed right at you and asked, "WELL, HOW COME NO ONE EVER POINTS OUT YOUR LITTLE FRIEND THERE? THE OTHER HUMAN YOU'VE BEEN WITH THIS WHOLE TIME? YES, THAT ONE THERE IN THE GREEN AND YELLOW SHIRT, ARE THEY JUST SHY?"

Oh, this day just keeps on delivering.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What, did you think I was done? Papyrus coming through


	12. Risks and Opportunities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Really though, didn't you and Frisk want to get busted at some point?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for this delay. Been a busy summer for me so far.
> 
> Undertale belongs to Toby Fox

You locked up and found yourself staring down Sans. He had blacked out his eye lights, so you couldn't tell what his feelings were, but you knew perfectly well you were caught with a deer-in-the-headlights stare. A far cry from your gooey-faced previous encounter.

Frisk, however, was giving Papyrus and Sans a look that was half confusion and half exuberance. Finally, they yelled out. "Papyrus! You're the best!"

Frisk ran up and tackle-hugged the taller skeleton. Now it was his turn to look confused. "WELL OF COURSE I AM, HUMAN, BUT THAT STILL DOESN'T ANSWER MY INQUIRY ABOUT YOUR QUIET HUMAN COMPANION."

"What are you dorks talking about?!" Undyne burst out. You could tell this came as a relief to the rest of the group; Alphys, Mom, and Dad were all ridiculously puzzled.

"Oh d-dear," Alphys stammered, "perhaps Frisk needs some rest. And are you feeling okay, Papyrus?"

"NEVER BETTER, ALPHYS! WHY WOULDN'T I BE? I'M TANNING MY BONES FOR THE FIRST TIME. HAVEN'T ANY OF YOU BEEN CURIOUS ABOUT THE SECOND HUMAN? YOU THERE, STOP STARING AT MY BROTHER AND TELL US YOUR NAME!"

You tore your eyes away from Sans' eye sockets and looked at his brother. "H-hi. Can you…hear me?"

"WHY IS EVERYONE ASKING ME ALL THESE SILLY QUESTIONS? YES, I CAN HEAR YOU CHILD, THOUGH YOU ARE BEING QUITE QUIET."

"Sans, I think your brother has been working too hard." Mom said, teasingly, though you could tell there was concern in her voice.

Frisk butted in, "No, Toriel, he's right though! I haven't been alone! I've had…"

Frisk then realized, and you could see it dawn on their face, that if they said that it was Mom's dead human child that was with them the whole time, that might make things a bit weird for everyone involved.

Still, Mom was curious now. "Oh? Did you have an imaginary friend on your travels?"

Frisk shook their head vehemently. "No, not imaginary! I just….ah…"

Papyrus was getting a little frustrated now. "WHY WOULD YOU SAY THEY'RE IMAGINARY, CLONE –I'M SORRY, TORIEL, RIGHT – YOU CAN SEE THE HUMAN RIGHT THERE!"

"Papyrus, you're losing it! Maybe you should skip tomorrow's 4 a.m. jog!" Undyne hooted with laughter.

Dad didn't know what to make of any of this, "I'd love to hear more about Frisk's non-imaginary friend."

Finally though, Sans spoke up. "pap, they can't see the other kid."

Everyone got quiet. Papyrus looked at his brother curiously. "WHY EVER NOT? ARE YOU MEANING TO TELL ME ONLY YOU AND I CAN SEE THEM?"

Sans nodded. "that's exactly it, bro. but, yeah. there is a kid there."

Mom's smile faltered. "I demand an explanation at once."

Sans frowned. "you uh…all may not like this."

You backed up a second, scared. What was he going to do? Before he could though, Frisk shouted, "WAIT!"

Sans stopped and looked a bit puzzled as Frisk ran over and grabbed your hand. "Don't be afraid," they reassured you, "I'm here."

"Our ambassador is an ambassadope." Undyne grumbled.

Sans laughed, "good one, but no. here:"

You felt the soft, "plink," of blue magic being applied, just like it had in Frisk's fight with Papyrus. But it wasn't being applied to Frisk, it was being cast on you.

The effect was instantaneous: Alphys shrieked and jumped back, Undyne jumped in shock and swore, Mom and Dad covered their mouths in unison, gasping, and Papyrus slapped his forehead and said, "OH NEAT, I HAD NO IDEA OUR MAGIC COULD DO THAT TOO."

"yes. so this tagalong here has been following frisk all along," Sans explained, and you felt yourself be lifted off the ground. Your hand was torn from Frisk's, and they let out a small gasp, as Sans added, "influencing them to do who knows what."

"Sans, I'd caution you not to speak that way about my child!" Mom said, sternly.

Sans paused, perhaps knowing how Mom and Dad would react, held you in the air, and you flailed helplessly. "sorry, toriel, you haven't seen the things i've seen. alphys hasn't either, but she has something of an idea. right, doc?"

The tapes. He was talking about the tapes. No wonder he always looked at you suspiciously.

Frisk must have known too because they stepped in front of you, hands on their hips, just like they had done to you at the beginning. "I don't like you talking about Chara that way either, Sans! Put them down! They didn't do anything to you!"

"Sans," Dad interjected, still keeping his gentle tone, "I'm sure you have your reasons, but this is the first time I've seen my child in years, please, put them down."

Sans begrudgingly set you on the ground, and Frisk stood in front of you. You had never felt more touched than to see them believing in you with such finality.

Mom and Dad rushed past them though and hugged you. Perhaps it was a side effect of Sans magic, but at the moment you couldn't be more thankful for it. You began feeling tears fall down your face as your smiled and hugged your parents for the first time in years.

"Oh my child, I've thought of you every day," Mom sobbed.

Dad was beyond words, but his tight grip made you know for sure that he felt the same.

"I missed you so much…" You said into their shoulders, but it came out as more of a whimper; you never would have imagined that you would ever be able to speak to them ever again.

You were yanked into the air again. You looked up at Sans, wiped your eyes, and shouted, "Oh come on! Rude!"

Before Mom and Dad could round on Sans, he replied, "not as rude as tricking monster-kind about your death, kiddo."

Alphys looked at her feet guiltily, which Mom noticed immediately – one of those weird Mom powers she always claimed to have – and looked from her, to Sans, to you, before asking, "Sans, what do you mean?"

Alphys began to stammer nonsensically, and Sans was considering his words. However, you felt a tug on your pant leg, and looked at the ground. Frisk was pulling on you, and they mouthed, "you have to tell them."

Frisk was right, and you knew it. It was the only way to really redeem yourself for what you had done.

"It was a plan!" You blurted out, getting everyone's attention. Mom and Dad exchanged confused looks.

"Chara, what could you mean?" Dad asked.

You closed your eyes, took a deep breath, and focused on the feeling of Frisk holding your ankle to reassure you.

"I…when I was alive, I didn't like other humans very much. So I thought, maybe the best way to be the hope for humans and monsters was to find a way for me to free everyone. But I also…I also really hated the village I came from."

You peaked an eye open, but shut it when you saw the concern on Mom's face. Frisk squeezed your foot though, so you continued, "after…after we got Dad sick on accident that one time, I told Asriel I had an idea. I would eat buttercups."

There was a gasp. It was from Mom. You pressed on, "I would keep eating them until Asriel could take my soul. Then the two of us would go to my village in a body powered by a human and monster soul, kill six humans, and then break the barrier. I thought it was the best way to get the only two things I wanted – revenge on the humans who raised me, and to free my family."

Your tears had turned to ones from joy to tears of fear, but you kept yourself from going into panic, "Asriel didn't want to though. So I…I pushed them. But once we got to the village, he took control of our body and ran away. But not before getting attacked." You began to falter, "And then we died! And it's my fault! It's all my fault!"

You covered your face. You couldn't bring yourself to look at Mom and Dad. They must hate you now. "I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry. I never wanted him to get hurt, I just wanted to help."

To your relief, Frisk forcefully pulled you down and hugged you. Frisk said, to all of them, but perhaps Sans in particular, "When I fell, I was the only one who could see Chara. Even though they didn't like people, Chara helped me the whole time and we were a team! Friends! Partners! I…" Frisk squeezed you, tightly. You still kept your eyes shut, but you cried a little harder when they said, "I could have never have freed you without Chara."

The tension hung thick in the air, at least for you, but it was broken as you felt warm, fuzzy arms hug you. You finally opened your eyes to see Mom had come to hug you both.

"Oh, my poor, poor child," Toriel sighed, "I knew there was heartache in you that wasn't healing. If only I had known."

Dad had come to the other side of you, and knelt down. "Chara," he said, sorrow in his voice you hadn't heard often, but it was similar to his tone when he realized he had to fight Frisk, "It seems I put an immense amount of pressure on you to live up to the title of hope for all monsterkind. I had no idea."

"You…you aren't mad?" The question left your lips as a squeak.

Dad hugged you. "No, Chara. I wish I had known too. The only I wanted from you was to be happy, not to lead any sort of charge against humans."

You were crying again. Frisk was crying, Dad was crying, Mom was crying, and it was all just a big, giant mess. Papyrus was crying too, and ran up to join the hug. It was a little weird, but you appreciated it all the same.

Finally, the hugging and crying all stopped, and Alphys raised her hand. Dad answered, "Alphys, you don't have to raise your hand to speak, this isn't school."

Alphys ignored this, and asked Frisk excitedly, "Is th-this why you asked me to research if you could smooch a ghost?!"

You blushed, but before you could response, Frisk grabbed your cheeks and planted a wet one right on your lips.

"Oh my!" Mom declared. Dad laughed, and Undyne joined him. Alphys squealed in excitement, "AH! I so ship you two now!"

"OH MY, IS THAT WHAT HUMANS DO WHEN THEY GO ON DATES?!" Papyrus asked, excitedly. Sans made a confused grunt, sounding baffled for the first time in this whole thing.

You hid your face in your hands, but Frisk put an arm around your waist. "Do you think there is anyway we can help them, doctor Alphys?"

"i'm not entirely certain we should, buster," Sans replied, "we don't know that this timeline won't end up like the others."

The timelines. You had forgotten all about them. "You mean the ones Gaster showed me?"

Sans seemed surprised this time. "how do you know about my dad?"

Everyone else seemed confused. "Why does that name seem so familiar?" Dad pondered.

Undyne shrugged, "I'm not good with names, which is usually why I call everyone punk."

"I wondered why you got me that King Punk mug for my birthday that one time."

"IS THAT WHY NO ONE TALKS ABOUT DAD ANYMORE? I WAS WONDERING BUT I DIDN'T WANT TO BE RUDE."

"paps, first you can see the kid, now you remember dad when i thought only i could. you got to tell me these things," Sans sighed.

Frisk turned to you, "Gaster was the old royal scientist you told me about, right?"

You nodded, "Yeah…but, I didn't know Gaster had kids. Gaster was your dad?!"

"let me ask the questions," Sans replied, "how did you find out about the timelines."

"Sans, what does this have to do with Chara?!" Mom asked, frustration clearly growing at the tone Sans was taking with you.

Sans kept his eye trained on you, and you decided to not give him the satisfaction of answering. "Frisk, remember when we uh…got separated in the lab?"

Frisk nodded, and bit their lip. They must have felt guilty for ditching you, but you deserved it.

"Well, like the other times, I got lost in this weird void. You see, if I got too far from Frisk, usually I'd get snapped back to them. We're stuck together."

"Not that I mind!" Frisk winked.

You blushed, "R-right. Anyway, sometimes when this would happen, I'd get stuck in this weird, black void for awhile. And Gaster would be there. Most of the time, he'd help me find Frisk, and say something cryptic. I didn't really get it."

"YES, THAT SOUNDS LIKE DAD," Papyrus interjected, "OFTEN TIMES HE WOULD TELL ME THAT YOU CAN'T RUSH THE PASTA, YOU HAVE TO ALLOW IT THE TIME TO COOK TO AL DENTE, OR THE WHOLE DISH WOULD BE RUINED. BUT REALLY, HE WAS TEACHING ME THAT SOMETIME IT TAKES TIME TO ACHIEVE GREATNESS! THAT'S HOW I LEARNED HOW TO HAVE SUCH AMAZING PERSISTENCE! YOU CAN'T RUSH THINGS. OH DEAR, I'M RAMBLING, AREN'T I? PLEASE CONTINUE, SHY GHOST HUMAN CHILD."

You and Frisk looked at each other and laughed, "Thank you, Papyrus. Anyway," You cleared your throat, "the last time Frisk and I got separated was when Frisk…found out about my death. I was having a lot of doubts, and Gaster showed up again. And he said something like, there were only two timelines that he couldn't see the ending of."

Sans tone changed to his, "judgment," mode, "You're forgetting something."

You had thought you had been doing a pretty good job of telling the story. "Uh?"

"Timelines have been starting and stopping for years, kid. And It was threatening to tear the underground apart. There's no telling what sort of effects it's had on any of us."

"Okay, nerds, time out, I'm confused." Undyne interrupted, rubbing her temples, "what are you talking about, timelines?"

"I-it has to do with determination, right?" Alphys asked.

"The power that gives human souls the power to persist after death?" Dad added.

Sans nodded. "Right. Ever since Stripes over there fell down, they've RESET time numerous times using their determination."

Alphys walked up to Sans. "What are you talking about?"

Frisk answered, to your relief. "Because I was super determined to get everyone out of here, Chara showed me this cool power determination has in the underground! I can make these like… SAVE points, and if I mess something up, I can go back and try it again."

"It's NOT a neat power." Sans snarled back, using his powers to jolt you into the air. "It creates tears in the fabric of space and time, and doing so could have ended the underground. In one timeline, it appears to have done so. And here's the worst part: Frisk, what year is it."

Frisk frowned. "211X."

Everyone gasped, including you. "That's like a hundred years after I fell!"

"That can't be though," Mom replied, "it's only been about five years since…since you died, sweetie."

"Both are correct," Sans answered, "because every time Frisk, or Chara, or anyone else RESETS, time might go back in the underground, but time would continue moving forward outside the barrier. That was some powerful magic keeping us under that mountain…including sealing all the effects of the RESETS."

It was a weird feeling. You'd been dead for a hundred years, but you had only experienced five. "I…I didn't know," you stammered.

"Sans, I still don't –" Mom began, but then Sans dropped the bombshell.

"Because there were only two timelines that couldn't be predicted by Gaster, which he's been showing me. This one, and one where Frisk and Chara didn't become such good friends. One where instead, your kid possesses Frisk there and kills everyone in the Underground."

"That's not me!" You shouted back. "I told Gaster the same thing when he made me watch it. I wouldn't hurt Mom like that, I wouldn't hurt Dad like that, or Undyne, or Mettaton, or Papyrus, or EVEN YOU, even if you're being a big jerk to me right now. And I wouldn't. Do that. To Frisk!"

"Without their intervention, we'd all be dust caked on your trousers by now. You get a body, and suddenly Frisk isn't the one reigning you in, how do we know you don't have a change of heart?"

"SANS, THAT'S ENOUGH." Papyrus said, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder, breaking some of tension that had fallen over the group.

"Papyrus," Sans replied, not taking his eye off of you, "you don't understand how many timelines I've seen where you've died."

"OH OF COURSE I DO, SANS, DAD SHOWED THEM TO ME TOO. I JUST THOUGHT THEY WERE WEIRD NIGHTMARES, BUT THAT MAKES MUCH MORE SENSE NOW THAT I KNOW YOU'VE BEEN HAVING THEM. ALSO, I WASN'T ASLEEP FOR THEM. BESIDES, UNDYNE KILLED FRISK ABOUT EIGHT TIMES BEFORE FRISK FIGURED OUT HOW TO BECOME THEIR FRIEND."

"I did WHAT?!" Undyne yelled in surprise.

"CAPTAIN!" Mom shouted angrily.

"You know, I had lost count." Frisk said to you.

You shrugged back, "I stopped after five."

Sans tone returned to normal, "and you aren't…worried about them?"

"OF COURSE NOT SANS, THIS IS A HUMAN CHILD WHO IS TRYING THEIR BEST TO BE GOOD, EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE DEAD. THAT'S THE SORT OF UNDYING DEDICATION TO GREATNESS I APPRECIATE. AND BESIDES, I'M IN TRAINING FOR THE ROYAL GUARD! FACING DANGER HEAD ON IS PART OF THAT. IF FRISK VOUCHES FOR THEM, AND THEY WANT TO PUT IN THE EFFORT, WE SHOULD BE THEIR GREAT FRIENDS AND HELP THEM AS MUCH AS WE CAN."

"Yes!" Frisk agreed, "He gets it!"

Dad spoke up, "This…has certainly been a lot to take in. It will be dark soon, and there's certainly not a whole lot we can do about it now, at the base of a mountain at night."

Mom agreed, although you could tell she was a little reluctant to do so. "Indeed…come, let's find somewhere to stay, and we'll see what we can do about Chara."

Sans didn't put up much of a fight, and let you down. Together, you all went in to town…  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next few weeks went by in a blur. News stories broke out, and the resurgence of monsters was met with surprisingly better acceptance than you could have ever guessed. Reintegrating was a bit of a problem, but eventually a few towns were established. Within a few months, Mom even opened up a school, and even a few human kids went to it too. She was hoping to integrate more.

Papyrus would come over sometimes, and make you visible for Mom. Sometimes Dad would come too, but him and Mom were still trying to get past what had happened. They didn't seem to hate each other, but you accepted that they weren't going to be together. Dad started working at the school though too, so you hoped that they could at least be amicable.

You and Frisk told everyone about Resets. And about Flowey, and all that had happened on your journey. They made you promise not to do it anymore, which didn't bother either of you now that you were both free. And Mom promised that once some time had passed, you could go back to get Flowey.

You helped Frisk learn to read, too. They were smart, so it wasn't the hardest thing in the world, but it still took a couple of weeks and a bit of frustration here and there.

Mom was also a bit weirded out about you being around Frisk overnight, since Frisk had…kissed you hardcore. In front of anyone. But, nothing she could do about it, though she did check in on you both a lot at night. It was funny.

Things were settling down for awhile, but then one night, there was a knock at the door.

"Hello? Mom answered, "Oh! Hello Dr. Alphys! How can I help you?"

"W-well your Majesty, I th-think I need to talk to y-you, the king and F-frisk."

You and Frisk were on the couch as they played some video games, with Frisk laying their head in your lap, and upon hearing their name, Frisk paused.

"It's getting rather late, Alphys. What's so urgent?"

"It's the human souls! They've come back!" Alphys cried, sounding on the verge of wetting herself from excitement.

Frisk looked at you. "What do you think this has to do with us?"

You shrugged. "Sneak closer. Remember: stealthy ninja."

Frisk tiptoed around to the wall that connected the living room to the kitchen and you both listened in.

"Well, that's amazing, but there's no need for us to hold on to them now, is there?" Mom asked.

"Ma'am, I'm sure you're aware, as you've taught Monster Biology – and I hear the human kids find it fascinating – how monster souls are connected to their physical being. Hence why we're mostly made of magic."

"I'm aware of how my body works, doctor." Mom snapped. She got a little defensive about the two of you being up past your bed time.

"R-right," Alphys stammered, "B-but humans aren't nearly as connected when it comes to souls and bodies. You couldn't construct a physical form for a soul using just one soul."

Mom became intrigued, "Where are you going with this?"

"Wh-what I'm saying is we could possibly construct a form for Chara using the power of all six souls. "

"What?!" Mom asked.

"What?!" Frisk exclaimed, jumping out from around the corner, causing the two women monster to jump.

"Whoa." You gasped. Had the souls come back to help you?! Was it possible?

Mom clutched her chest and sat down. "I didn't…I didn't think it was possible."

Alphys pushed up her glasses, "I need to run more tests, but these initial results are promising. The only thing I wanted to talk to you about would be…well…Frisk and Chara would need to be part of these tests. Don't look at me like that! I promise they will be in no danger!"

Before Mom could answer, Frisk ran up to her and grabbed her hand! "We have to! We have to!"

They ran up to you too and hugged you! "Chara! Chara we can get you a body! You can go to school with me!"

You were speechless. But you were beaming, and nodding at Frisk.

"Mom, I wish you could see Chara's cute face right now!" Frisk exclaimed, and she laughed softly. You were glad no one but Frisk could see you blushing.

"Have you spoken to Asgore about this as well?" Mom asked.

Alphys nodded. "Yes, and something I needed to bring up…Sans will be assisting with some of this. He is the one most aware of how the determination and soul magic works. He's been helping me with a lot of this actually."

Ah. There was a snag. Mom and Sans' friendship had been…complex since you were outed. Sans still didn't quite trust you, but kept his mouth shut. Still, despite most everyone patching things up after what happened, you would catch Sans giving you chilling stares. You and Frisk had figured to ignore it. What really bummed you out with the whole thing is that Frisk wanted to be friends with Sans, but they got so upset with how Sans treated you, it made them not try.

Mom hesitated, but finally relented. "If it can give me back Chara, I'll do it."

"WHOOOOO!" Frisk yelled, cartwheeling around the kitchen.

You still couldn't find your tongue. Your heart was pounding in your chest.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Over the next few weeks, after school, the two of you would go to Alphys lab, where she and Sans would perform all sorts of tests. Sans would make you visible and tangible, and Alphys tested the limites of what your ghostly form could do. Obviously there was no blood sample for her to take (which was a bummer since you could still blush, despite not having a bloodflow), but she managed to take a few samples of your form in other ways.

Sans would talk and joke with Frisk, but made only plain remarks to you. You didn't blame him; if he saw the timelines like you had, he knows just how badly you would have turned out without help from Frisk.

Mom and Dad were always there, watching and talking with Alphys about her findings. One day, about three weeks in, she walked in and said to all of you:

"Well, we can confirm that Chara's soul, what remained of it after death, was bound to Frisk's or perhaps absorbed by Frisk's, because they're both defined by Determination."

"which usually can't happen, because humans not being able to absorb human souls." Sans added.

Alphys nodded, "Right, h-however, because of how Chara's soul was in a monster body at the time of their uh….s-second death, they had enough monster-like traits residing in there soul that they were able to link to Frisk. Now, here's why this happened: it's possible that the fall should have killed Frisk."

Frisk gulped loudly, and Mom and Dad looked uncomfortable. Then again, that was the reason Frisk jumped…same reason you had.

"we believe it was that influx of energy from chara's soul that allowed the two of them to bond, and keep Frisk alive in that time of need." Sans finished.

"That's really something!" Dad said, clearly impressed.

Mom nodded, "Indeed, fascinating, but what does that mean for Chara?"

Alphys and Sans glanced at each other. Alphys sighed. "Well, in order to reanimate a body for Chara, we would have to remove their piece of Soul from Frisk's , and add it to the six others. I have a machine containing the six souls. However…"

Alphys began to sweat, and tripped over her words. Sans sighed, and said, in his judgment voice, "There's a distinct possibility that if their souls are keeping each other alive, or one of them is keeping the other alive, that we may lose one or both of them in the process. "

In the same instance that you declared, "No, we can't do that," Frisk had instead said, "We have to try!"

Mom and Dad looked to you both, shocked.

"Frisk," you said, trying to keep calm, "I'm already dead. I refuse to let you risk your life for me."

Frisk scowled, "No way. It's because you're dead that we have to. You did so much for me, let me do this for you."

You turned to Mom and Dad. "Guys come on, don't let Frisk do this! Unacceptable!"

Frisk turned to Alphys and Sans instead. "I'm doing it. My body. Don't listen to Chara."

"Frisk no!" You pleaded, "What if you don't make it?"

"But what if we both make it, Chara?!" Frisk replied, "We could go to school together, you could live, you could have that second chance! We could…" Frisk blushed, "We could get older. Together."

You turned red. The thought had crossed your mind, if you were going to be stuck as a ghost while Frisk grew up; that could prove to be difficult for both of you.

Mom and Dad looked to each other, and back to the rest of us. Mom stated, wisely, "let's not rush to decide. We have lots to discuss, and I think we should all take some time to rest and weigh all the options."

You and Frisk both accepted this, albeit begrudgingly. As soon as the four of you arrived back to Mom's house, she invited Dad in, and the four of you sat down at the table. You of course were now incorporeal to everyone except Frisk again, making the whole situation a bit more confusing. No one said anything, the weight of the choice heavy on everyone's mind.

Frisk spoke first. "Look…I um…I'm not going to pretend I'm not scared. But, I want Chara to have a second chance. I don't want to wake up every day, and see them as a ghost, stuck with me forever, and know I didn't try."

Mom and Dad looked at each other, and stayed quiet. Dad was crying slightly, never one to fear showing his emotions. Mom was more reserved, but you could tell this was eating at her. "Frisk…I have seen so many human children come and go. But you…I don't want to risk losing you."

"But we also know, it is not right to subject Chara to that existence while we have a chance to stop it." Dad added.

Knowing that Mom and Dad couldn't hear you, you looked at Frisk, and said, "And what if I wake up, and this works, but you don't make it? Frisk, I can't live like that. I can't…I…"

The words became lost in your throat, but Frisk frowned to you, and your parents could clearly see you were telling them something.

"It won't happen." Frisk replied. There was simplicity in their voice, a knowing statement that they were sure it wouldn't. Determination.

You frowned. "You don't know that!"

Frisk shook their head. "No it won't. We're doing this. And we're going to be okay." They turned to Mom. "We're doing it. I'm sorry."

Mom said nothing, but nodded. "Child…please, go up to bed. I will discuss this with Asgore and…we shall make arrangements."

Frisk got ready for bed, and instead of their usual flirting, banter, and sneaking a kiss from you before Mom came to check on them, they laid in bed and turned their back on you. You weren't entirely certain what to make of it; you were still at a loss for words at the entire situation.

"Chara," Frisk's voice came from the bed, finally, after a few minutes, "Are you mad at me?"

"No," you found yourself answering without hesitation, "I'm not. I know how stubborn you are…I'm just worried."

"I…I am too. But we're both going to make it through this. I haven't been wrong yet, have I?" Frisk asked.

You thought about it. "I guess not. You managed to free the Underground and you found a way to help me. All the things you said you would do, you've managed in some way." You smirked, even though Frisk couldn't see your face, "Although if you push your luck like that you're going to jinx yourself."

Frisk didn't laugh. "Chara, I want you to have a second chance so bad. You…you deserve it."

You laid down on the bed next to Frisk. "…not as much as Asriel."

Frisk turned to you. "When do you think it will be safe to go back and get him?"

You shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know how long it will take him to turn back, and how he's going to…be when he's back to being Flowey. If he'll be pissed, if he'll have mellowed out…I don't know."

Frisk sat up. "Hey…you know what would cheer him up though? If this works, we could go down and get him together? The whole thing…his whole thing when he was fighting me was that he missed you…he wanted you back. If he saw you, I bet he'd be thrilled."

You thought about it. "Or he'll be pissed that I got the second chance and he didn't. Or jealous. Or he'll remember what he said about me being a bad person. I mean, you heard what he said at my grave. Do you really think he'd be happy to see me?"

Frisk ruffled your hair to comfort you. "He's your brother. Of course he will be."

"So…I guess we're going through with this after all, huh?" You asked, turning to stare up at the ceiling.

"Yeah. No backing out now. " Frisk yawned, rolling over and falling into an uneasy sleep.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was decided the next day: that next week, when summer vacation started, you and Frisk would step into a machine built by Alphys. When you stepped out, you would have a tangible, human body, constructed from the magic of the six human souls you had helped free from Flowey.

It was a rough week. Everyone and anyone came to visit Frisk to wish them luck, to a family of Froggits, to Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Mettaton, to Monster Kid and his sister, to even some of the guards that been after you in the Core. It was nice, but it just brought more attention to the fact Frisk might not live through the procedure. You weren't too worried about yourself; you had been dead for so long it was old hat for you. In fact, you were almost more afraid for what living would be like again.

The night before, Sans, Papyrus, Alphys, Undyne, and Mettaton all came over for something of a celebration, but you knew better: it was more of a "Just-in-case-you-die-going-away party." Still, Frisk enjoyed themselves; there was cake and friends. Sans and Papyrus took turns making you corporeal throughout the night so you could talk to the guests and eat too. You were still a pretty awkward kid, but the monsters, damn them, were just too nice not to get along with.

"HUMAN CHARA, I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT WHEN EVERYTHING GOES WELL, I'VE COME UP WITH A NEW DISH I WANT TO GIVE YOU TO CELEBRATE!" Papyrus crowed to you and Frisk, as the three of you sat on the couch.

You laughed, "Yeah? What's that?"

"IT'S A COMBINATION OF MY MASTERFUL SPAGHETTI, AND THAT NEAT HUMAN CAKE THAT HAS ALL THE COLORS IN IT. I CALL IT FUN-FETTI SPAGHETTI!"

Frisk stifled in a giggle fit, and you tried your best to keep a straight face as you replied, "That sounds lovely Papyrus! I uh…can't wait!"

Papyrus squealed in delight and ran off to tell Undyne about this…magnificent idea. To be fair, since coming to the surface and discovering cooking shows, he had gotten a lot better at cooking. His problem would then be trying to, "invent," foods like that, and that's when things would usually go south.

As the party went on, Frisk fell asleep, so Mom carried them upstairs, and said goodnight to them. You were incorporeal at this point, having left the party downstairs, but she knew you were there too, obviously. Looking at the room, she sighed.

"Oh Chara," Mom she said, "I do hope you two are making the right choice. You should go to bed too. You both have a big day ahead. I hope…I hope tomorrow I can do this and see your face again. Good night."

"Night Mom," you replied, sadly, but excited at the thought that maybe soon, she'd be able to hear you again.

She shut the door, and you heard a rush of wind. There was a familiar, "plink," and you were above the bed again, and Sans was by the window, holding you up.

"relax kid," Sans said, immediately seeing your worried face, "not here to…pick a bone with you."

"You've used that one." You replied, trying to keep your cool.

"heh. caught me reusing material." Sans sniggered, "actually, thought i'd apologize to you for the way i acted before."

This was unexpected. "Oh…"

"mind you, i think i had some good reason to, having seen the other timelines," Sans replied, "and i'll be honest, frisk seems to…'chara' lot for you."

You snickered. "Frisk uses that one all the time."

"my point is, i can tell that the kid there means a lot to you. so i thought i'd say sorry, wish you luck for tomorrow."

You smiled. That was a weight off your shoulders. "Thanks, Sans. That means a lot to me. And Frisk will be thrilled."

Sans nodded. "sure thing, kid. i'll let you get to sleep now though. night."

The skeleton placed you on the ground, and was gone. You laid down next to Frisk, and looked to the ceiling. You jumped as you heard their voice mumble, "I told you he'd come around."

"You heard all that, huh?" You chuckled.

"Mmhmm," Frisk muttered, half-asleep. "Night, sweet cheeks."

You rolled your eyes, blushing slightly. "Good night Frisk."

You couldn't sleep though.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow, you might be alive again. Terrifying, yet exciting.


End file.
